Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!steinmetz!hamlet!hallett
From: hallett@hamlet.steinmetz (Jeff A. Hallett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Help with Postscript embedded in Microsoft Word
Message-ID: <8323@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: 29 Dec 87 16:08:02 GMT
References: <22@trwdis.UUCP>
Sender: root@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP
Reply-To: desdemona!hallett@steinmetz.UUCP (Jeffrey A. Hallett)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 40
Keywords: postscript word microsoft macdraw laserwriter

In article <22@trwdis.UUCP> mongoose@trwdis.UUCP (mongoose) writes:
>I am trying to take a form template from a MacDraw drawing and print text on
>it using Microsoft Word.  I "print" the form template to disk using Clover-F
>to create a PostScript file in MacDraw.  I then put this postscript into the
>header for my document and give it the style "postscript".  There is a funny
>character near the end of the PostScript file that appears on the screen to
>look like a rectangle, I delete this character and presto, I get the form
>printed, followed by another page that contains the text that I wanted on
>the same page as the form.  
>
>Has anyone done this before and have some experiences I could benefit from?
>I have wasted about fifty pages of paper trying to solve this problem.  I
>have looked through my PostScript reference manual (by Adobe Press) to no
>avail.  A problem I have is that MacDraw seems to use abreviated macro names
>for all the ordinary PostScript instructions, maybe even using some custom
>macros to do fancy things.  As such, I have a hard time figuring out what
>is going on.  Is there anywhere that the MacDraw dialect of PostScript is
>documented?  Do all Macintosh applications abreviate in the same fashion?
>
>Any help will be greatly appreciated.

What you are trying to do is very difficult and, I wonder, if worth the time.
Yes, Apple should be shot for the braindamaged PostScript macro package they
have created.  To help, try to get Post-A-Matic; there was a demo copy on
Sumex-Aim or send me mail and I'll send you the guy's address when I'm in my
office.  It attempts to translate the MacDraw PostScript into pure PostScript -
ie. remove the funky macros.  Does a good job; I did a review of it a while
ago.

If this doesn't work, I would suggest you become a PostScript hacker and do the
form by hand.  Forms are pretty easy in PostScript and with the help of the
rulers in MacDraw, it should be fairly easy to duplicate the layout.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic.


Jeffrey A. Hallett               (ARPANET:  hallett@ge-crd.arpa   
Software Technology Program       UUCP:     desdemona!hallett@steinmetz.uucp)
General Electric Corporate Research and Development
"The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many"    -- Kirk  (STIII)