Architectural specifications

kubbinga · General User Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 6

Hi!
I posted a similar question on the writer forum but have not managed to figure out my problem. I have just been turned on to the potential of databases and wonder if anyone could tell me if I could set up a database that would feed information to several related documents. For example, I work as architect and have to issue several types of docments ranging from memorandums, meeting minutes, transmittals, letters etc. I also produce documents called construction specifications that are similar to books with common headers and footers except that each section or 'chapter' is actually a separate file.
If all of these files are grouped by project into one folder, is it possible to have a OoBase file in the folder that will contain information such as project titles, numbers and similar data that would be accessed by the other documents as they are opened?

Any explanation or help pointing me in the right direction is greatly apprecited.

Thanks!

chris

AndrewZ · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:25 pm Post subject:

About the "chapters": if you want to write separate files that will be combined in different ways, then use Master Documents.

A Master Document collects several text documents (each like a chapter) in one big document (like a book). The Master Document can have its own table of contents (or other indexes), page numbers, etc.

Here is a tutorial:
http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/masterdocument.html

I used an OpenOffice.org master document to create an instruction manual. It worked nicely.

kubbinga · General User Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 6

Is there anyone who can at least confirm that what I want to do is possible? I sense that people are not responding because the answer might take a bit to describe. Don't worry,I'll dig up what I need to know if I know that I will be able to do what I want to do.

Thanks everyone.

Chris

AndrewZ · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:40 pm Post subject:

Chris,

Everything is possible. Smile

If you want to pull information from a database into a text document, a simple way of doing that is Mail Merge. If you want something more sophisticated than Mail Merge, you may have to do some programming.