$h = RTF::Writer->new_to_file($filename);
This creates a new RTF output stream object, such that sending text to this object will write to the
filespec given. This is basically a wrapper around new_to_handle. If opening a write-handle to
$filename fails (or if $filename is undef or zero-length), then a fatal error results.
$h = RTF::Writer->new_to_handle(*FILEHANDLE);
This creates a new RTF output stream object, such that sending text to this object will write to the
filehandle given. The filehandle can be a glob (*FH) or a filehandle object (*FH{IO} or the value
from "IO::File->new(...)").
$h = RTF::Writer->new_to_string(\$string);
This creates a new RTF output stream object, such that sending text to this object will append to the
string that you've passed a reference to.
$h->print(...);
This is the basic method for writing text to an RTF stream. This takes a list of items. Each item
is either:
a plain string, like "foo\n"
In this case, the value is imputed to be a plaintext string, and an rtf-escaped version of it is
written. For example "Stuff\n\t\tUmmm\n" causes 'Stuff\line \tab \tab Umm\line ' to be written.
See rtfesc(x) for further details of escaping.
a scalar-reference, like \'\ul'
In this case, the value is imputed to be a reference to alreadyescaped text. This is the basic
way to emit RTF codes. Text passed this way will be written without any additional escaping.
Unless $RTF::Writer::AUTO_NL (normally on) has been turned off, the item written will be followed
with a (presumably harmless) newline character to delimit any code in there from any following
text, if the last character of this string is a digit or a lowercase letter. This is so that
"(\'\i', "foo!")" emits "\i[newline]foo!'" (which does what you expected), instead of '\ifoo!',
which looks like an RTF command "ifoo" followed by a plaintext "!".
an array-reference, like [ \'\ul', 'foo' ]
This emits an open-brace "{", as RTF uses for opening "groups" (generally for delimiting the
effects of character-formatting commands like '\ul', or a few formatting commands like
'\footnote'); then it emits the items in the referred-to array; and then emits a closing "}". I
intend this to be useful is making sure that you don't emit more open-braces than close-braces,
since that usually makes RTF readers immediately reject such a file.
You can nest these array-references, like:
$h->print(
\'\col2',
[ \'\pard',
"It is now ",
[ \'\f1',
scalar(localtime), " local, or ",
scalar(gmtime), " GMT.",
],
" -- if you're ",
[ \'\i',
"keeping track.",
],
],
\'\par\page',
);
The return value of the print() method is currently always the value 1, although this may change.
$h->prolog(...);
This writes an RTF prolog to $h. You are free to make your own prolog using just $h->print(\'...your
own code...'), but I find in easier to automate this task, particularly with some sane defaults.
Since emitting a prolog opens a "{"-group, calling $h->prolog(...) sets a flag in $h so that when you
call $h->close(), a closing "}" will automatically be written before the stream object is actually
closed.
The options to the prolog() method are passed as a list of keys and values, for controlling the
contents of the prolog written. The options are listed below, roughly with the most important
options first.
(Be careful with the spelling of these options. Some are rather odd, because they are (mostly) based
on the name of the relevent RTF command, and a systematic naming scheme for commands is one thing you
won't find in RTF!)
'fonts' => [ "Courier New", "Georgia", "Whatever"...],
This value is for the font table section of the prolog. If the value is an arrayref, then it
should be a reference to an array whose items should be either plain text strings, like "Times
Roman", which are the (unescaped) names of fonts; or the items in the array can be scalar-refs,
for expressing RTF control words along with the (escaped) font name, as in "\'\froman Times New
Roman'". If the value of the "fonts" parameters is a scalar ref, then it is taken to be a
reference to code of your own that expresses the whole font table. If you don't specify a value
for the "font" option, then you get a font table with one entry, "Times New Roman".
You should be sure to declare all fonts that you switch to in your document (as with \'\f3', to
change the current font to what's declared in entry 3 (counting from 0) in the font table).
'deff' => INTEGER,
This is for expressing, in the prolog, the font-table number of the default font for this
document. The default is 0, which is an often useful value.
'colors' => [ undef, [0,142,252], [200,32,0], ...],
This value is for expressing the document's (generally optional) color table. If you stipulate
an arrayref value, then each item of the array should be either an RGB triplet expressed as an
arrayref like [200,32,0], or undef, for a null color-entry. If you stipulate a scalar-ref value
for 'colors', then it is taken to be a reference to code of your own that expresses the whole
font table.
If you don't stipulate any value for 'colors', then you get a table consisting of three colors:
null/default (undef), 100% red ([2550,0,0]), and 100% blue ([0,0,255]).
You can freely ignore concerns of color tables if you don't use color-changing codes in your
document (like \'\cf2', to switch the text foreground color to what's declared at entry 2
(starting from 0) in the color table).
'stylesheet' => STRING,
'filetbl' => STRING,
'listtables' => STRING,
'revtbl' => STRING,
These are for expressing, in the prolog, code constituting the document's style sheet, table-of-
files, table-of-lists, and table-of-revisions, respectively. The default value of each of these
is empty-string. None of these are needed by a typical RTF document.
'more_default' => STRING,
This is for inserting any additional code just after the '\deffN' in the start of the prolog,
before the font table. A common useful value here is \'\deflang1033', to express the default
language (1033 = RTFese for US English) for the document, although my reading of the RTF spec
leads me to believe that this doesn't need to be in the prolog here (where many writers put it,
as apparently accepted by many RTF readers), but should (instead?) go just after the prolog, with
other "document formatting" commands described in the "Document Formatting Properties" section of
the RTF Specification.
'doccomm' => STRING,
This value is for the "document comment" metainformation item in the prolog, which appears as the
"Comment" field in the "File Properties" panel in MSWord, or as the "Abstract" field in the "File
Properties" window in WordPerfect.
If no value is specified, then RTF::Writer puts a string noting the value of $0 (typically the
filespec to the current Perl program), and the version of RTF::Writer used.
'title' => STRING,
'subject' => STRING,
'author' => STRING,
'manager' => STRING,
'company' => STRING,
'operator' => STRING,
'category' => STRING,
'keywords' => STRING,
'hlinkbase' => STRING,
'comment' => STRING,
These are for stipulating the string values of these various optional document metainformation
items. 'operator' is for the name of the person who last made changes to the document;
'hlinkbase' is which is the URL or path that is used for for resolving any all relative
hyperlinks in the document; 'comment' is reportedly just ignored (cf. the 'doccomm' attribute,
which is not ignored); and you can guess the rest.
The meanings of all of these are explained in greater detail in the RTF spec.
'revtim' => EPOCH_NUMBER,
This value is for the document metainformation section of the prolog. It signifies the last-
modified time of the document. EPOCH_NUMBER is the number of seconds since the epoch, such as
one gets from "(stat($thing)[9])" or "time()"; or you may pass a reference a timelist, like
[localtime($whatever)].
If no defined value for revtime is stipulated in the call to prolog(...) then the current value
of time() is used. Explicitly pass a value of undef to suppress emitting any 'creatim' value.
'creatim' => EPOCH_NUMBER,
This value is for the document metainformation section of the prolog. It signifies the last-
modified time of the document. If no defined value for 'creatim' is stipulated in the call to
prolog(...) then the current value of time() is used. Explicitly pass a value of undef to
suppress emitting any 'creatim' value.
'printim' => EPOCH_NUMBER,
This value is for the document metainformation section of the prolog. It signifies the time when
this document was last printed. If you don't stipulate a defined value here, no 'printim'
metainformation is written.
'buptim' => EPOCH_NUMBER,
This value is for the document metainformation section of the prolog. It signifies the "backup
time" of this document. If you don't stipulate a defined value here, no 'buptim' metainformation
is written.
'version' => INTEGER,
'vern' => INTEGER,
'edmins' => INTEGER,
'nofpages' => INTEGER,
'nofwords' => INTEGER,
'nofchars' => INTEGER,
'nofcharsws' => INTEGER,
'id' => INTEGER,
These are for stipulating the integer values of these various optional (and not terribly useful,
for most purposes!) document metainformation items. The meanings of all of these are explained
in the RTF spec.
'charset' => STRING,
This is for expressing, in the prolog, RTF codename for the character set being used in this
document. The default is "ansi", and don't stipulate anything else (like "mac", "pc", or "pca")
unless you know what you're doing.
'rtf_version' => INTEGER,
This is for expressing, in the prolog, what major version of RTF is being used in this document.
The default is 1, and don't use anything else unless you really know what you're doing.
$h->printf('format', ...items...);
This is just short for $h->print(sprintf('format', ...items...)
$h->printf(\'format', ...items...);
In this case, 'format' is assumed to contain already-escaped RTF code. The items in ...items... are
escaped as necessary, and then interpolated. I.e., this is rather like: $h->print(\sprintf 'format',
map rtfesc($_), ...items...)) except that numeric items don't get escaped (and don't need to be).
Example:
$h->printf(
\'{\i "%s"} was found in %2.2f percent of matches\par',
$word, 100 * $count / $total
);
$h->number_pages();
$h->number_pages(...);
This is just a handy wrapper for some code that turns on page numbering. If you call this method,
you should call it right after you emit a prolog.
The page numbering consists of just putting the page number at the top-right of each page. If you
provide items in the list (...), then that is pre-pended to the page number. Example:
$h->number_pages("Lexicon, p.");
Or:
$h->number_pages(\'\b\fs30\f2', "page ");
$trdecl = RTF::Writer::TableRowDecl->new( ...options... )
This constructs an object representing a declaration for a table row. You can have to use it in
calls to $h->row($tabldecl,...), and can reuse it on subsequent calls. This object is for declaring
the dimensions of table rows.
The work that a declaration has to do, is best explained in this diagram of a bordered three-cell
table (first cell containing "Foo ya!"), placed near a left margin (shown as the line of colons).
The things in brackets are not on the page, but just for our reference:
: [..w1...]
: [......w2.......]
: [...w3....]
[.A..] [.B.] [.B.]
:
: +-------+---------------+---------+
: | Foo | Bar baz | Yee! |
: | ya! | quuxi quuxo | |
: | | quaqua. | |
: +-------+---------------+---------+
:
[.A..] [.B.] [.B.]
[..r1........]
[.....r2.....................]
[........r3............................]
Here the horizontal dimensions of the three-celled table are expressed in terms of: A, the distance
from the current left margin; B, the minimum distance between the content of the cells (or you can
think of this as twice the internal left or right borders in each cell); and then EITHER [w1, w2,
w3], expressing the width of each cell, OR [r1, r2, r3], expressing each cell's right end's distance
from the current left margin. All distances are, of course, in twips.
Options to RTF::Writer::TableRowDecl->new( ...options... ) are:
left_start => TWIPS,
This declares the distance between the left margin, and the left end of the table. Default is 0.
inbetween => TWIPS,
This declares the distance labelled "B", above. Default is 120, which is 6 points, 1/12th-inch,
about 2mm.
widths => [TWIPS, TWIPS, TWIPS, ... ],
This expresses the widths of each of the cells in this row, starting from the leftmost.
reaches => [TWIPS, TWIPS, TWIPS, ... ],
This expresses the rightmost extreme of each of the cells in this row.
align => alignmentspecs,
This is explained in detail in the section "Cell Alignment Syntax", below.
borders => borderspecs,
This is explained in detail in the section "Cell Border Syntax", below.
$h->paragraph(...);
This makes the items in the list (...) into a paragraph. Basically just a wrapper for $h->print([
\'{\par', ..., \'\pard}', ])
$h->row($trdecl, ...items...);
This emits a table row, with dimensions as stipulated by the $trdecl object, and with row content
from the items given.
You must provide a value for $trdecl, or a fatal error results.
If you provide fewer items than $trdecl declares cells, then you get empty cells to fill out the row.
If you provide more items than $trdecl declares cells, then the width of the last declared row is
used in figuring the width of the additional cells for this row.
Example:
my $decl = RTF::Writer::TableRowDecl->new('widths' => [1500,1900]);
$h->row($decl, "Stuff", "Hmmm");
$h->row($decl, [\'\ul', 'Foo'], 'Bar', \'\bullet');
$h->row($decl, "Hooboy.");
This creates a table resembing:
+-------------+-------------------+
| Stuff | Hmm |
+-------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| _Foo_ | Bar | * |
+-------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| "Hooboy." | |
+-------------+-------------------+
Note that you MUSTNOT use '\par' commands in any items you emit in row cells!
The $h->row(...) method is a wrapper for producing elementary tables in RTF, with the minimum of
parameters; the myriad other options that tables can have (for example, changing borders) are not
supported. If you really need to generate tables fancier than what $h->row(...) can produce, start
off reading the RTF spec, reading the source for row() (and the RTF::Writer::TableRowDecl class), and
progress from there. Note that MSWord has been known to crash when given malformed RTF table code.
$h->table($trdecl, [...row1 items...], [...row2 items...], ... );
$h->table([...row1 items...], [...row2 items...], ... );
This is a wrapper around $h->row. It takes a list of arrayrefs, which are fed to calls to
h->row($tr_decl, @$each_arrayref). You should provide a $trdecl, but if you don't, then one is
crudely guessed at, based on the maximum number of columns in all rows.
$h->image( image_parameters )
This returns a scalar-reference to RTF-code representing the given image with given parameters. For
example:
$h->paragraph(
"See here: ",
$h->image( 'filename' => "foo.png", ),
);
The legal options are explained below:
filename => FILENAME,
This should be the path to a readable filename. You have to specify this. If you don't specify
this, or if the value isn't a readable file, then a fatal error results. Currently, only JPEGs
and PNGs are allowed; specifying any other kind of file causes a fatal error.
(The "filename" option above is required, but the following options are all generally optional --
altho some RTF processors may be finicky if you set some of the following but not others, for no
apparent reason. When in doubt, test.)
wgoal => TWIPS,
The desired width of the image
hgoal => TWIPS,
The desired height of the image
scalex => PERCENT,
scaley => PERCENT,
Respectively, the horizontal (X) or vertical (Y) scaling value. The argument is an integer
representing a percentage. (The default is 100 percent)
cropt => TWIPS,
cropb => TWIPS,
cropl => TWIPS,
cropr => TWIPS,
These specify the top, bottom, left, and right cropping values. A positive value crops toward
the center of the image. A negative value crops away from the center, adding a padding space
around the image.
(The default is to do neither, as you'd get from a cropping value of 0.)
picspecs => \SCALARVALUE,
This overrides generation of the normal image values based the image and the above parameters,
and instead uses whatever value you pass a reference to. You normally shouldn't need to use
this.
$h->image_paragraph( image_parameters );
This take the same options as "$h->image(...)", but has three differences: First, it is a shortcut
for this:
$h->paragraph( \'\qc',
$h->image( ...params...),
);
Secondly, whereas "$h->image(...)" returns the image data (as an RTF scalarref),
"$h->image_paragraph(...)" doesn't return much of anything.
Thirdly, "$h->image_paragraph(...)" is often much more memory-efficient, since it can write the image
data to a file as it's RTF-ified, instead of building it all up in memory.
$h->close();
This completes writing to the stream denoted by the object in $h; this generally (assuming you'd
called $h->prolog) involves just writing a final close-brace to $h, and then closing whatever
filehandle or file $h writes to (unless we're writing to a string, in which case we just discard $h's
reference to it). After you call "$h->close", you should not call any other methods with $h!
Note that you don't have to explicitly call "$h->close" -- when an unclosed RTF::Writer object goes
out of scope (or, more precisely speaking, when if its refcount hits zero), then something equivalent
to calling "$h->close" is done automatically for you.
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