Java API to convert Microsoft Word to PDF?

Hello all. Sorry for the cross-post. I posted in the "Java Programming
Language" group thinking I was in this group,
"comp.lang.java.programmer" ...

I have seen gazillions of messages about this subject, and have
followed loads of links from Google to home pages for products that do
just this -- for a price.

Is there no way to do this *free*? Currently we are using a combination
of iText and JasperReports to generate PDFs but we also have a case
where we have a whole bunch of already-generated Microsoft Word docs.
What I would like to be able to do is emulate the Windows "Print to
PDF" from my webapp -- create a PDF doc for every Word doc that is
exactly the same, then save them as BLOBs in the DB.

The problems are 1) it has to work on a Linux box and 2) I would like
to be able to do it for x documents all at once. So obviously, loading
the Word doc, printing to a PDF file and uploading that file to the DB
isn't gonna fly if the user has to do it 200 times.

Anyone ever did this without having to buy one of those gigantic and
expensive professional reporting tools?

Thanks in advance,
syg

sygsix@gmail.com

wrote:
> I have seen gazillions of messages about this subject, and have
> followed loads of links from Google to home pages for products that do
> just this -- for a price.
>
> Is there no way to do this *free*?

It is even difficult to get this for pay (at least for a non-trivial
definition of "working") on Linux. And frankly said, I don't begrudge
[sp?] any penny to a programmer who manages to correctly parse and
decode any incarnation of the proprietary, badly (if at all) documented
Word formats.

As fare as I understand it, the free Apache POI is not ready for
handling Word. This leaves very few options.

If it doesn't have to be Java, you could try to use OpenOffice for batch
processing (in listen mode). OpenOffice is good at importing Word
documents, but not perfect. You could also try some of the other free
word processors who do have Word import functions (AFAIR Abiword has one).

Maybe it is simpler to pay the Microsoft tax for a cheap PC with
Windows, Word and some VB programmer who hacks some batch processing
tool for you.

/Thomas
--
The comp.lang.java.gui FAQ:
ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/...g/java/gui/faq
http://www.uni-giessen.de/faq/archiv....java.gui.faq/

wrote:
> Hello all. Sorry for the cross-post. I posted in the "Java Programming
> Language" group thinking I was in this group,
> "comp.lang.java.programmer" ...
>
> I have seen gazillions of messages about this subject, and have
> followed loads of links from Google to home pages for products that do
> just this -- for a price.
>
> Is there no way to do this *free*? Currently we are using a combination
> of iText and JasperReports to generate PDFs but we also have a case
> where we have a whole bunch of already-generated Microsoft Word docs.
> What I would like to be able to do is emulate the Windows "Print to
> PDF" from my webapp -- create a PDF doc for every Word doc that is
> exactly the same, then save them as BLOBs in the DB.
>
> The problems are 1) it has to work on a Linux box and 2) I would like
> to be able to do it for x documents all at once. So obviously, loading
> the Word doc, printing to a PDF file and uploading that file to the DB
> isn't gonna fly if the user has to do it 200 times.
>
> Anyone ever did this without having to buy one of those gigantic and
> expensive professional reporting tools?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> syg
>
You may want to look at 'PDFCreator'.

I just downloaded it yesterday and works well. It creates PDF's from any
Windows program. It installs its own printer driver for creating PDF's.

Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator

Home is http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/
--


Thanks in Advance...
IchBin, Pocono Lake, Pa, USA http://weconsultants.servebeer.com
__________________________________________________ ________________________

' If there is one, Knowledge is the "Fountain of Youth"'
-William E. Taylor, Regular Guy (1952-)

IchBin wrote:
> wrote:
>> Hello all. Sorry for the cross-post. I posted in the "Java Programming
>> Language" group thinking I was in this group,
>> "comp.lang.java.programmer" ...
>>
>> I have seen gazillions of messages about this subject, and have
>> followed loads of links from Google to home pages for products that do
>> just this -- for a price.
>>
>> Is there no way to do this *free*? Currently we are using a combination
>> of iText and JasperReports to generate PDFs but we also have a case
>> where we have a whole bunch of already-generated Microsoft Word docs.
>> What I would like to be able to do is emulate the Windows "Print to
>> PDF" from my webapp -- create a PDF doc for every Word doc that is
>> exactly the same, then save them as BLOBs in the DB.
>>
>> The problems are 1) it has to work on a Linux box and 2) I would like
>> to be able to do it for x documents all at once. So obviously, loading
>> the Word doc, printing to a PDF file and uploading that file to the DB
>> isn't gonna fly if the user has to do it 200 times.
>>
>> Anyone ever did this without having to buy one of those gigantic and
>> expensive professional reporting tools?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> syg
>>
> You may want to look at 'PDFCreator'.
>
> I just downloaded it yesterday and works well. It creates PDF's from any
> Windows program. It installs its own printer driver for creating PDF's.
>
> Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
>
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
>
> Home is http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/

Sorry, I missed the requirement for Linux.

--


Thanks in Advance...
IchBin, Pocono Lake, Pa, USA http://weconsultants.servebeer.com
__________________________________________________ ________________________

' If there is one, Knowledge is the "Fountain of Youth"'
-William E. Taylor, Regular Guy (1952-)

IchBin wrote:

> You may want to look at 'PDFCreator'.
>
> I just downloaded it yesterday and works well. It creates PDF's from any
> Windows program. It installs its own printer driver for creating PDF's.
>
> Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
>
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
>
> Home is http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/

Here's another pointer:

ActivePDF, the company that publishes commercially licensed ActiveX
components for generating and manipulating PDF files, also publishes
PrimoPDF, which allows you to "print to PDF" in much the same way and is
free. You have nowhere near as much control over the output (understandably,
since they want you to buy their ActiveX components), but it may be good
enough for your purposes.

http://www.primopdf.com/

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Thanks for all the responses.

Unfortunately, this has to work on Linux so I can't use any printer
driver solution. Besides that, this is a J2EE web application, so what
I need it to do is, when the user clicks a button a Struts Action is
called that loads any number of Word docs from the database and
converts them to PDF. So what I really need is an API, not a driver or
a 3rd-party application.

I'll keep looking ...
syg

Steve Sobol wrote:
> IchBin wrote:
>
> > You may want to look at 'PDFCreator'.
> >
> > I just downloaded it yesterday and works well. It creates PDF's from any
> > Windows program. It installs its own printer driver for creating PDF's.
> >
> > Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
> >
> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
> >
> > Home is http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/
>
> Here's another pointer:
>
> ActivePDF, the company that publishes commercially licensed ActiveX
> components for generating and manipulating PDF files, also publishes
> PrimoPDF, which allows you to "print to PDF" in much the same way and is
> free. You have nowhere near as much control over the output (understandably,
> since they want you to buy their ActiveX components), but it may be good
> enough for your purposes.
>
> http://www.primopdf.com/
>
> --
> Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
> Company website: http://JustThe.net/
> Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
> E: Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

[sujithjm]

did you find any convertor?

I have been searchning for whole day.. apache POI - well still in infancy stage.. did you have any luck?