From: Povl Aage <paa@...>
Date: 2001-03-31T22:33:16+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:13384] RE:  [Q] Win32OLE  documentation and tips??

Since you already have things working, I don't think you'll need a lot
of Ruby specific hints here - you're programming Excel through COM,
which is language neutral. Look at the following URL for general Office
programming documentation:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/officedev/ode
core/ODEstartpage.htm

I haven't tried this a whole lot myself, but I'd advice you to prepare
for some initial frustration while getting used to the object model! A
great way to learn about it is to run Excel interactively and record a
macro of what you want to do. Then look at the source code for that. 

This is pretty powerful stuff, and some end users are very happy with
Word and Excel.

Povl Aage

-----Original Message-----
From: Leo Razoumov [mailto:see_signature@127.0.0.1]
Sent: 31. marts 2001 03:10
To: ruby-talk ML; ruby-talk@netlab.co.jp
Subject: [ruby-talk:13368] [Q] Win32OLE documentation and tips??


I tried out a very nice and useful example from the Thomas & Hunt book
page 168.
I am using Ruby-1.6.2 on Windows-2000 Professional and everything worked
out
just fine!!

This script automatically starts Excel spreadsheet, enters data into the
cells,
plots the data in the charts and even provides some animation.
Automatic data entry and plotting is _very_ useful and can be a life
saver.

The only problem I have that the BOOK coverage of win32ole is very
sketchy and
does not provide any hints on more advanced usage. I tried Visual Basic
Editor
included with Excel. It lists some properties (with their names) of few
OLE
objects but I could not find out the particular attributes I need.

Where can I learn more on creating automatic scripts for Excel??
Also any Ruby specific hints on the issue are welcome.

I am particularly interested in the following:
  * two dimensional scatter plots with lines and dots
  * setting ranges on X, Y axes (using log scale as an option)
  * specifing chart title
  * specifying labels for individual plots
  * moving legend to the bottom center position


Thanks,
--Leo [ slonika AT yahoo DOT com ]