plain text report using Firefox/OpenOffice

[Derek Atkins]

Um, instead of using Cut-and-paste, perhaps a File -> Import in OOo
for the gnucash-exported HTML?

-derek

Quoting TyrusMaynard <mayn at main.nc.us>:

> I haven't been able to identify the odd outcome of text output from 
> html2text on this Ubuntu system and am unable to achieve what Andrew 
> describes.
> But ..... I discovered an unusual feature of the combo of Firefox 
> displaying the  html of a gnucash report and copy/paste insertion 
> into an OpenOffice document.
>   It seems that OpenOffice 1.1.3 recognizes what it receives from the 
> copy paste to compose a multicolumn text report based on the 
> definition of table tags in the original HTML.  This includes the 
> bonus that you can resize the columns to overcome occurrences of any 
> long text data that is forced to wrap within the predefined columns. 
> This is definitely not what you will get if you paste into a plain 
> text editor.
>    This behavior of OO 1.1.3 figures out the column size for each 
> column tag within rows and it has something to do with what Firefox 
> is putting into the copy/paste buffer.  This does NOT occur with a 
> copy/paste from the same HTML report displayed in Opera, or with 
> gnucash as the browser.
>   Does this have to do with some assumptions that Firefox makes about tabs?
>   Do others notice that this behavior is only achieved by the combo 
> of Firefox with Open Office?
>   This will be my work around tool for getting text that I can resize 
> in a wordprocessor. It allowed me to reduce a 20+ page report  to 12 
> pages.
> It also eliminates the bug which "mows" down starting/ending lines in 
> the postscript output for printing in my version of gnome.
>
> I was on the yellow brick road and fell through the clouds to be 
> deposited in Kansas. I guess tornado metaphors are not so good given 
> the recent real destruction, but stumbling onto this solution seems 
> as random as being thrown about by a tornado and coming out lucky.
>
> Thanks for the help when I was twisting around, Ty
>
>
>>>> example below here>>>
> Here are the fields of the report (Num is empty of data):
>
> Date	Num	Description	Transfer from/to	Amount
>
> Here is a sample section acquired by copy/paste to text:
>  Good single line rows , its OK except for the  skew of column which are all
> well aligned in the HTML display in gnucash and other browsers.
>
> 04/05/2005		BRIGGS CONSTR. hydraul oil	Assets.chk153	$23.28 
> 04/07/2005	 ASHEVILLE HOSE & 
> E	Assets.chk153	$29.40	04/22/2005		SmokyMtn Petro hydraul 
> Assets.chk153	$33.66
>
> Here is same sample of HTML sent thru html2 text:
>    "html2text -o output.file -nobs input.file"
>    The date and description field has become multi-row for ??? reason
>
> 04/             BRIGGS CONSTR.
> 05/             hydraul oil           Assets.chk153          $23.28
> 2005
> 04/
> 07/             ASHEVILLE HOSE & E    Assets.chk153          $29.40
> 2005
> 04/             SmokyMtn Petro
> 22/             hydraul               Assets.chk153          $33.66
> 2005
>
> Here is the  sample (first row) of HTML source:
>
> <TR>
> <TD BGCOLOR="#ffffff">
> 04/05/2005
> </TD>
> <TD BGCOLOR="#ffffff">
> <BR>
> </TD>
> <TD BGCOLOR="#ffffff">
> BRIGGS CONSTR. hydraul oil
> </TD>
> <TD BGCOLOR="#ffffff">
> Assets.chk153
> </TD>
> <TD BGCOLOR="#ffffff" NOWRAP ALIGN="right">
> $23.28
> </TD>
> </TR>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available