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Someone was looking for advice on using MS Word vs. desktop publishing
software, with particular reference to links with databases and other
software. A few points:
1. Most desktop publishing software lets you establish automatically
updated links with external documents, particularly graphics. On the
Mac, this is called "publish and subscribe", on the PC, it's called
"object linking and embedding", and God only knows what it's called on
UNIX. <grin> This solves part of the problem.
2. Automatic links with databases/spreadsheets are also possible, but
don't seem to work so well by the techniques mentioned in point 1.
Here, you need something called "database publishing" software, which
automates the process of transferring data from a database into
desktop publishing software to produce an almost completely formatted
document. For specifics, see PC Magazine, Macuser and MacWorld: I
believe that each has published reviews of database publishing
software in the past 6 months, but I don't have my copies with me at
work, so I can't cite page numbers. TO avoid a wild goose chase, try
to find the information online in case I'm misremembering the time
frame.
--Geoff Hart #8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: These comments are my own and don't represent the opinions
of the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada.
