fread an .doc

[marylin77]

can i open and read (fopen and fread) a document .doc?
Regards from Spain.

[Dr Livingston]

Umm....

Hardly used COM myself though your looking for something like this ?

...
$word = new COM('Word.Application');
//
if($word) {
$filename = 'c:/ms/word/invoicing.doc';
$accessed = $word -> Documents -> Open($filename);
.
. 

Maybe look at the PHP Manual for more info ? Hope this gets you started though...

[marylin77]

ok thanks

[cfm]

Hello,

If all you want to do is open the Microsoft Word document, than Dr. Livingston's suggestion will work perfectly. But most people actually like to read or edit the document when they open it, and Word documents use a closed, proprietary format. Thus, you won't be able to read, edit, or manipulate the data in the document. I don't know if Microsoft is kind enough to help people out with this, but I doubt that there's another way.

Compuwhiz7

[marylin77]

I am reading here:
http://es2.php.net/manual/en/ref.com.php
you wrote:
Thus, you won't be able to read, edit, or manipulate the data in the document.
///
do u mean is impossible to read a document.doc via php functions??

[cfm]

Hello,

As far as I know, yes, it is impossible to read a Microsoft Word document using PHP. If, however, you could somehow convert the Word document into a plain text file (.Txt), then you could read, parse, and edit such a document.

Hope this helps...

Compuwhiz7

[timnz]

Well you could "read" it but it will mostly be gobble-de-goop (unreadable). Or in other words: open a .doc in Notepad and that's what you're going to get.

[Dr Livingston]

Do you know Visual Basic ?

I don't though maybe see if you can find anything more about the COM component over at Microsoft in relation to Visual Basic/PHP ?

--EDIT--

convert the Word document

Not plain text but XML perhaps ?

[marylin77]

thanks for all...All the comments had been very usefull for me Particularly,compuwhiz7's answer:
however, you could somehow convert the Word document into a plain text file (.Txt).
///How i can convert it?any idea?some routine made by someone :]?
PD: i do not know Visual Basic :[
Regards from Spain.

[Cam]

Course it can be done, in a round about way

Here is a link which explains it in details, and it's really pretty simple. Just have to convert it to HTML first.

[marylin77]

Look at this:

<?php
// starting word
$word = new COM("word.application") or die("Unable to instanciate Word");
print "Loaded Word, version {$word->Version}\n";

//bring it to front
$word->Visible = 0;

//open an empty document
$word->Documents->Add();

//do some weird stuff
$word->Selection->TypeText("This is a test...");
$word->Documents[1]->SaveAs("jo.doc");

//closing word
$word->Quit();

//free the object
$word->Release();
$word = null;
?>

It is all right..but if i write
$word->Documents[1]->SaveAs("jo.txt");
the file called jo.txt is unreadable.
Although If i open jo.doc with Microsoft Word and then i click in Save As and i write jo.txt (selecting .txt as type), then the file jo.txt is readable.
Curious...

[marylin77]

thanks very much DJ_p@ckman...it is all right..now ( I convert the php file I want into an html file)
Regards from Spain.
Only one thing:
althoug I write:

$word->Visible = 0; 

I have to accept to open Microsoft Word to display the html file what I want.¿How can i do to avoid the oppening of Microsoft Word ?