Microsoft Publisher reporting/LabVIEW desktop publisher

[Paul_Hanley]

Can we have some report generation that is Microsoft Publisher specific as this would be more useful than word or excel. Or a more generic format that could be used by different publishers. Or a generic print file that is more adaptable to the page size and position on the page. LabVIEW desktop publisher?? This is because the only way to print at the moment is via word or excel or by printing the front panel which can be a bit hit and miss in different versions of Windows.

[ghighuphu]

I worked on some dozens of PCs run by MS Windows and IMO MS Publisher is as rare as snow in the Sahara. Why do you think reporting in MS Publisher is going to be robuster than MS Word?

[Paul_Hanley]

Anything from MS is going to be as robust as snow in the Sahara but publisher will allow me to do the printing I want to do easier than word. If I could find a program that is not from the MS site but still economically friendly for my company I would use that.

[tomlawton]

Since I will NEVER rely on Microsoft, my workaround (for graphs) is..: I use LabVIEW to output a gnuplot script, and then invoke gnuplot with the epslatex terminal to produce PDFs. Of course, the heap of ordure that is Word can't embed a PDF, further demonstrating that whatever the problem, Word, or Microsoft, is not the solution... 😉

As I develop my output-to-gnuplot further, I realise it could be implemeted such that all you have to do is pass a reference to a graph, and it would simply produce a (nicely typeset) PDF version of it- One day.....!

For other forms of data- like tables, or reports, it's easy to get LabVIEW to write LaTeX, and then hand off the typesetting with a System Exec call.

With these solutions, cost isn't an issue- they're free; time, however, may be...!

[Darren]

Any idea that has not received any kudos within a year after posting will be automatically declined.