[libreoffice-users] Re: Automating creation of PDF from Calc

Well eventually I seem to be getting somewhere.  There seems to be a lot of choice.

There are some people who use the method of hiding all the sheets except the sheet to be converted 
into a PDF. Which is the method I used below.

Another methed seems to be to use printareas. To me this only seemed useful if one wanted to print 
a specific section of a sheet. Though I didn't quite master the intricacies of swithing on/off 
print areas though thgis code started to look promising -

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem define variables
dim oFrame   as object
dim oDispatcher as object
Dim CellRangeAddress As New com.sun.star.table.CellRangeAddress
Dim oDoc As Object
Dim oSheet As Object
Dim oFirstSheet As Object
Dim iEndCol As Integer
Dim aPrintRanges(0) As  Object

oDoc = ThisComponent
oFirstSheet = oDoc.Sheets.getByIndex( 0 )
iEndCol = getLastUsedColumn(oFirstSheet)


rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem get access to the document
oFrame   = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
oDispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
CellRangeAddress.Sheet = 0
CellRangeAddress.StartColumn = 0
CellRangeAddress.StartRow = 0
CellRangeAddress.EndColumn = 6
CellRangeAddress.EndRow = 35
aPrintRanges(0)=CellRangeAddress

oDoc.Sheets.getByIndex(0 ).setPrintAreas(aPrintRanges())
 
I used this method to erase the print areas on particular sheets so that the entire sheet became 
printable.

oDoc.Sheets.getByIndex(1 ).AutomaticPrintArea=True


The third method which seems to be the most promising selects the range of cells to be PDF'd and 
actually uses a method from the API. I cobbled this together from this tutorial 

https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/API/Tutorials/PDF_export

and Andrew Pitonyak’s book converting from Java as I went along

Sub exporttopdf1()

Dim oFrame as object, oDispatcher as object, oDoc as object, oController as object,  oSheet as 
object
Dim oRange as object, oDispatcherService as object, oSelection as object
Dim aFilterData(0)  as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
Dim aMediaDescriptor(1)  as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue

oDocument = ThisComponent
oFirstSheet = oDocument.Sheets(0)
oSecondSheet = oDocument.Sheets(1)
oController  = oDocument.getCurrentController()
oFrame = oController.getFrame()
oDispatcherService = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")
oRange = oFirstSheet.getCellRangeByPosition(0, 0, getLastUsedColumn(oFirstSheet), 3)
oController.Select(oRange)
oSelection = ThisComponent.getCurrentController().getSelection()

sURL= "file:///home/alex/example1.pdf"

aFilterData(0).Name = "Selection"
aFilterData(0).Value = oSelection

aMediaDescriptor(0).Name = "FilterName"
aMediaDescriptor(0).Value = "calc_pdf_Export"
aMediaDescriptor(1).Name = "FilterData"
aMediaDescriptor(1).Value = aFilterData
 
oDocument.storeToURL(sURL, aMediaDescriptor)

End Sub


All the best

Alex





On Thursday 08 May 2014 14:23:06 you wrote:


Hi all

I have a requirement to generate PDF's from specific set sheets contained in one Calc document, the 
document has 85 individual sheets. 

I've generated a macro to do this, having first recorded the steps using the macro recorder. Though 
the steps to record the macro worked perfectly as only the individual selection, i.e, all the cells 
on a specific sheet, was generated as a PDF. If I then run the macro with the same selection it 
always creates a PDF of  the entire document - all 85 sheets instead of just the selection!

Here's the recorded macro, note the selection "$A$1:$G$35" 

sub exporttopdf
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem define variables
dim document   as object
dim dispatcher as object

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
rem get access to the document
document   = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
dim args1(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
args1(0).Name = "ToPoint"
args1(0).Value = "$A$1:$G$35"

dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:GoToCell", "", 0, args1())

rem ----------------------------------------------------------------------
dim args2(2) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
args2(0).Name = "URL"
args2(0).Value = "file:///home/alex/example.pdf"
args2(1).Name = "FilterName"
args2(1).Value = "calc_pdf_Export"
args2(2).Name = "FilterData"
args2(2).Value = Array( _
Array("UseLosslessCompression",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Quality",0,90,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ReduceImageResolution",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("MaxImageResolution",0,300,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("UseTaggedPDF",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SelectPdfVersion",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportNotes",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ViewPDFAfterExport",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportBookmarks",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("OpenBookmarkLevels",0,-1,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("UseTransitionEffects",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("IsSkipEmptyPages",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("IsAddStream",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("FormsType",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportFormFields",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("AllowDuplicateFieldNames",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("HideViewerToolbar",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("HideViewerMenubar",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("HideViewerWindowControls",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ResizeWindowToInitialPage",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("CenterWindow",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("OpenInFullScreenMode",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("DisplayPDFDocumentTitle",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("InitialView",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Magnification",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Zoom",0,100,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PageLayout",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("FirstPageOnLeft",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("InitialPage",0,1,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Printing",0,2,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Changes",0,4,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("EnableCopyingOfContent",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("EnableTextAccessForAccessibilityTools",0,true,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE),
 _
Array("ExportLinksRelativeFsys",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PDFViewSelection",0,0,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ConvertOOoTargetToPDFTarget",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("ExportBookmarksToPDFDestination",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignPDF",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("_OkButtonString",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Watermark",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("EncryptFile",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PreparedPasswords",0,,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("RestrictPermissions",0,false,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("PreparedPermissionPassword",0,Array(),com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("Selection",,,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureLocation",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureReason",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureContactInfo",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignaturePassword",0,"",com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE), _
Array("SignatureCertificate",0,,com.sun.star.beans.PropertyState.DIRECT_VALUE))

dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:ExportToPDF", "", 0, args2())


end sub

Clearly the recorded macro has failed to record correctly, I do know that this can happen from time 
to time, and that I should tweak something in the above array, but don't not what and am finding it 
difficult to track down where these parameters are described in the documentation. Can anyone point 
me to where these parameters are described?

I've managed to derive a workaround for this which is to hide all the sheets that I'm not 
interested in then executing this block of code. It's a bit cumbersome as I have to hide 84 sheets 
just to create a PDF of one sheet. 

Whilst writing this note I've thought of another method that is to print the active sheet to a pdf 
file. I'm busily reading Andrew Pitonyak’s book
OpenOffice.org Macros Explained. Again I need to find the methods and properties associated with 
printin Calc sheets. Again can anyone point me in the right direction?

Could this be a question for the Developer's list?

Thanks 

Alex




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