[fpc-pascal]RTF

[David Emerson]

>But if you just need to create a single kind of document, 
>perhaps with some data changed, then you can often solve the 
>problem much more simply by:  (1) create an RTF document in 
>your favorite software; (2) Insert tags like ##ADDRESS1## where 
>you want to substitute text; (3) read in the template and 
>replace the tags with the text of your choice.

I recently wrote a program that does this. My primary problem 
arose from microsoft word being stupid (big surprise, huh?) 
Suppose I inserted a tag such as the above example, ##ADDRESS1## 
(I think I used greater-than/less-than brackets rather than 
pound symbols -- but those don't email well!) MS Word would 
sometimes insert rtf tags right in the middle of the word, for 
no obvious reason. So I would get something like:

##ADDR{\bizarre rtf tag, sometimes

containing carriage returns in the middle} ESS1##

My solution was to save as Word version 2, close and reopen, 
then save as rtf. It might not be a bad idea to go with the XML 
or LaTeX. But if you'd like a copy of the program I wrote, let
me know and I'll post it or email it to you.

~David