# Generating M$ Word documents from RoR apps?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-m-word-documents-from-ror-apps/171629>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 6, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-m-word-documents-from-ror-apps/171629 "2009-07-06T20:26:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/7ab992/32.png) [@weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weyus)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-m-word-documents-from-ror-apps/171629/1 "2009-07-06T20:26:10Z")

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All,

Anyone done any work generating Word documents/Word templates from a  
Rails app.?

I’m sure that there is a way to do this without too much trouble in a  
JRuby world, so wondering about that approach as well.

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks,  
Wes

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**Author:** ![weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/7ab992/32.png) [@weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weyus)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-m-word-documents-from-ror-apps/171629/2 "2009-07-06T21:30:46Z")

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Wes G. wrote:

> All,
> 
> Anyone done any work generating Word documents/Word templates from a  
> Rails app.?

There has been some recent discussion on the list about this – search  
the archives. But let me reiterate my stroing belief that MS Word  
documents have no place on the Web at all. They do not work reliably  
for the exchange of information between different computers, and they do  
not play well with most Web browsers. It is almost always possible to  
find a more suitable format. If you can tell me what you’re trying to  
do, I’ll try to suggest alternatives.

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/7ab992/32.png) [@weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weyus)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-m-word-documents-from-ror-apps/171629/3 "2009-07-06T22:39:47Z")

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I am humoring a client, but I am advising strongly against it.

The desired behavior is the ability to edit a document after it is  
generated via a Web form. I am pushing for making the Web form  
flexible enough to handle generating whatever they want into a read-only  
PDF.

But I feel like I need to do the due diligence on the possibility of  
generating a Word document.

Wes

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/7ab992/32.png) [@weyus](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weyus)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generating-m-word-documents-from-ror-apps/171629/4 "2009-07-06T22:43:14Z")

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Wes G. wrote:

> I am humoring a client, but I am advising strongly against it.
> 
> The desired behavior is the ability to edit a document after it is  
> generated via a Web form.

Why not give them HTML? MS Word will import it for easy editing, but it  
can also be viewed in the browser or edited with lots of other tools.

> I am pushing for making the Web form  
> flexible enough to handle generating whatever they want into a read-only  
> PDF.

That may be an even better idea.

> But I feel like I need to do the due diligence on the possibility of  
> generating a Word document.

Due diligence: it’s a bad idea. Avoid. 🙂

> Wes

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid