7.4

Task Properties
General tab
l Microsoft Word Document: Enter a Microsoft® Word® document or template, or click the browse button to navi-
gate to the location of the document. The supported extensions are: *.doc, *.docx, *.dot and *.dotx.
l Perform Mail Merge: Check when providing a Microsoft® Word® document or template configured for mail merge.
l Use settings specified in document: Selected to instruct the task to use the connection string and SQL
statements stored in the DOC file. There is no guarantee that the database, connection string or statement are
still valid, especially if the DOC file was moved or sent to someone else.
l Use custom settings: Override the mail merge settings in the Microsoft® Word® document and lets you
specify your own.
l Connection String: The connection string to any ODBCdatabase supported by PlanetPress Suite. You can
use the Browse button to open an existing File DSN, or use the Database Button to open the ODBCconnection
interface.
l SQL Statement:An SQLstatement that is understood by the database you are using and that will return a
series of records that the Microsoft® Word® template is expecting. Note that no validation is made on
SQLstatements except if they are for Microsoft Access and Excel data files. You can use the Test Connection but-
ton to test the SQLand connection string.
l Test connection: Checks if the Connection String and SQLStatement are valid, and if the resulting recordset
is understood by the Microsoft® Word® document. This is optional, though highly recommended.
l Output Type:
l .PDFFile (with metadata):The result will be a PDFfile with the number of pages generated by the com-
bination of the template and recordset. Metadata is also included that complement the PDF.
l .DOCfile:The result is a Microsoft® Word® document in .doc format. Note that this format is not supported
by PlanetPress Suite as a data file or job file, so this option is only useful if you are simply planning to save the
Word document in a specific location.
On Error Tab
The On Error Tab is common to all tasks. Details can be found on Task Properties Dialog.
If storing the message or ID, if they are store in a jobinfo they will be available in any error handling process where errors are
being forwarded. In all cases, if your process continues after the error, the contents of the variables selected in this window
will be available for the rest of your process, or whenever they are overwritten.
Common Errors
Though some error messages are specific to a task in particular, others may apply to any and all tasks because they are
related more to the system than to PlanetPress itself. Some examples would be W3813, W3830, W3991, W4005. These cor-
respond to issues such as not having any space to write files, permission errors on folders or files, etc.
Notes
l Microsoft Word must be installed on the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tool system.
l Microsoft Word must not be currently opened when the automation task runs.
l Microsoft Word 2003 and up are supported.
l The task uses a printer queue set with the “PlanetPress Word to PDF Printer” driver, which is created and set by default
on-the-fly the first time a Microsoft® Word® Document to PDFAction Task is run. This printer cannot be shared on the
network in order to avoid confusion from network users, however it is shared between all Microsoft® Word® Doc-
ument to PDFaction tasks on the same system.