# PDF Shipping Order Document Creation - Help, willing to pay

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-shipping-order-document-creation-help-willing-to-pay/49447>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 4, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-shipping-order-document-creation-help-willing-to-pay/49447 "2005-12-04T19:34:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![codeslush](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@codeslush](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/codeslush)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-shipping-order-document-creation-help-willing-to-pay/49447/1 "2005-12-04T19:34:59Z")

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ROR Community,

I have to create a PDF document. I have looked at the various tools  
and I think PDF::Writer is the way I want to go.

However, in looking through the demo’s, etc… I don’t see how to  
easily create the type of documents that I need without specifying every  
single coordinate along the way!!! I’ll do my best to describe:

It is a pretty standard two page shipping order. It has a logo,  
address, etc… at the top. The remaining is a combination of Labels and  
Cells that contain data from the database. For example, I have a row  
with Date, Agent, Order Number, Referred by. This row is not enclosed  
with any border. The next row will have the values corresponding to the  
above labels, each enclosed in a box. This type of pattern repeats  
throughout the portion of page one with different label and cell values.

On the next page, I have the type of product ordered. It is a choice,  
and based on the product from my database, the proper one needs to have  
an “X” or a checkmark in it. Example:

Product A ( ) + Special Fee \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ = Total Cost \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
Product B ( ) + Special Fee \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ = Total Cost \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
Product C (X) + Special Fee $100.00 = Total Cost $XXX.XX

Make sense? In the example above, the customer ordered Product C. I  
need this done quickly. Right now, I am losing a lot of time and  
accuracy by having to rekey values from my Rails app into an OpenOffice  
document, then save as PDF and then email!

If you have an example of how to do this, or are willing to do it for  
me at fee then email me your fixed bid price and when you can have it  
done and I’ll send you a sample document. You don’t have to worry about  
pulling the values out of the database - I’ll take your sample and do  
this. Just make sure it is written in such a way that I can pull in the  
values.

Thanks,

Michael

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![codeslush](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@codeslush](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/codeslush)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 5:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-shipping-order-document-creation-help-willing-to-pay/49447/2 "2005-12-05T05:14:27Z")

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Michael-

This isn’t a direct answer to your question but… What if you render  
the form as HTML and print to PDF. If you have Acrobat, just print to  
the Acrobat PDF generator. If you don’t, I think you can render an HTML  
page in OpenOffice then print to PDF there.

I’m going to get started on a PDF::Writer usage here soon but won’t be  
much help until I read up more on it.

Jake