Python Programming On Win32

The Last Word

Please note: Word is hard to work with. Even if you plan to write a controlling program in Python, you should sort the code you need in VBA and check that it all runs first to save time. The manuals and the product itself are buggy in places. It is also somewhat unstable during development; if you make lots of COM calls that cause errors, it tends to crash frequently. Once the code is correct, it seems to keep working without problems. Some other Python users have worked with very large documents and reported stability problems in making thousands of COM calls in a row while creating large documents.

However, we do expect this situation to improve; Word 8.0 is the first version with VBA, whereas people have been automating Excel in real-time systems for years. Furthermore, we expect Word to handle XML in the future, which will allow more options for pumping in lots of data quickly.

In conclusion, you have the technology to do almost anything with Word. However, it’s a heavyweight solution. Whether it’s the right format for you depends on several factors:

• Word documents are the output format you want.

• Your users have Word.

• Your reports fit a word-processor flow model.

• Whether it’s important to protect the integrity of a finished report or let users tweak it afterwards.