Text-wrapping when converting from Word to PDF

jaker over 7 years ago

Hi all,

We are facing an issue when generating PDF exports with dynamic data in a table where the PDF data within the file does not properly wrap within a cell. This causes table to data to overlap into other cells making it extremely difficult to read.

Since the data is not static we are first exporting the file to Word then converting to PDF. That said, has anyone found a workaround to resolve this text wrapping issue? Is there any successful approach to exporting dynamic data to PDF directly as opposed to doing a conversion? Thanks in advance.

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0 jaker over 7 years ago

As a follow-up, we have some workarounds such as splitting the data but this is not repeatable/scalable across other use cases.
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0 martinm over 7 years ago

Hi Jake - I haven't run across the issue of text wrapping in a cell, but regarding your question of exporting data straight to PDF -- there is a Shared Component plugin, PDF Tools, that allows you to directly 'Fill PDF' with data from your process model/expression.

Here's the link: forum.appian.com/.../summary
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0 jaker over 7 years ago

Thanks martinm - we are using this component but it seems to have some limitations around exporting non-static data which is part of our issue and the reason for converting from Word to PDF.
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0 harshav over 7 years ago

I know this wouldn't be the best solution but, we also had faced the same problem but we eliminated this using the break line values into the code after certain limit, and after that it is not leaving the margins in PDF. I am also actually reading what other practitioners would respond but this is what I did @jaker :)
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0 jaker over 7 years ago

It looks like there are also some CDTs deployed with PDF Tools that can be used to lower font size - see instructions in link above. Seems like changing these values + splitting the text might do it...
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0 Ravi over 7 years ago

Hi Jake, Are you using Advanced document Template to generate the word document ? If yes, you change the word template -> table property to fixed width and run the process. It'll work..
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0 chandolum
A Score Level 1
over 7 years ago

Hi Jake, we also faced the same problem when pdf exports with dynamic data, we resolved the problem by using the smart service

PDF from XSLFO. by using this smart service we can define the styles for the content so that content will not overlap.
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0 chandolum
A Score Level 1
over 7 years ago

You can find the PDF from XSLFO smart service from the below URL
forum.appian.com/.../summary
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0 aloks0189
Certified Lead Developer
over 7 years ago

jaker i think using PDF from XSLFO would be the best choice instead of using Word to PDF Smart Service. Also you may face an another issue while using Word to PDF smart Service (which currently you are using) is, when you have the Data in table format in Word Document, then while converting it to PDF, it will simply skip that table/grid data in it's output PDF Document.

So it's better you go for PDF from XSLFO smart service as the link shared by chandolum
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0 Abhishek Gaddam over 6 years ago in reply to harshav

Hi harshav, I am trying to implement the same logic but if you break line at certain character count, its line breaking at word and cutting the word into two how did you deal with this issue ? , please help if you encountered the same problem.
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