GhostWord

Version 2.10 released

GhostWord is an interface for the GhostScript package, which enables you to create PDF documents from Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents. GhostWord installs itself in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and you convert the documents by simply clicking an icon.

GhostWord is freeware. You may freely copy and use it without any charge.

Changes

Changes from version 2.00 to 2.10

  • Comma-point issues for threshold parameters fixed

  • Shifted to Office 97 components, except for Excel. Excel2000 is used, because PrintToFile in Excel97 required a filename entered by the user

  • Using Ghostscript DLL

  • Using TPostScriptToPDF Delphi component

  • "RPC-server Not Available" message removed

  • Handled stop in word files when Heading1 in tables was used

  • "Print to file" does not stay checked in Word when GhostWord finishes

  • Handled "SHGetSpecialFolderPath not available" problem

  • Added run from command line capability

Changes from version 1.20 to 2.00

  • All settings are now saved to the current user's home-directory (default c:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Mek\Et\GhostWord) and not to the GhostWord installation directory (it created some problems with writing access on some systems)

  • PDF-bookmarks can be created from headings in Word and slides in PowerPoint

  • Links (bookmarks, hyperlinks etc.) are converted to PDF for Word documents and PowerPoint presentations.

  • It's now possible to include document information (author, creation date, keywords etc) for Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel workbooks in the PDF-file

Changes from version 1.10 to 1.20

  • Included support for Excel 97 and 2000

  • Included support for PowerPoint 2000 (there seems to be some problems with PowerPoint 97)

  • Included several new options for controlling the quality of the generated PDF-file

  • Included Uninstall feature in GhostWord - see the Options page.

Download

1) You need the following software to make GhostWord work:

  1. Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint 97 or 2000 (NOTE: You might not be able to use GhostWord with PowerPoint if you have PowerPoint 97 – with PowerPoint 2000 there should be no problems). See also the manual

  2. A driver to a postscript printer.

  3. Aladdin or AFPL Ghostscript version 6.0 or later (Newest AFPL is recommended).

  4. Adobe Acrobat Reader or GhostView

2) You can download a postscript printer driver from the following location:

Windows 2000 and NT 4: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/printers/software/lj485en.exe

Windows 95,98:  ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/printers/software/lj477en.exe

These are drivers for HP color laserjet 4500, which seems to work well with Ghostscript.

3) You can download AFPL Ghostscript from the following location: http://www.ghostscript.com/

4a) You can download Ghostview from the following location:http://www.ghostscript.com/

4b)You can download Acrobat Reader from the following location: http://www.adobe.com

And finally download GhostWord version 2.10 here

Please read the Installation section below before installing GhostWord!!


Old versions

Download version 1.10

Download version 1.11

Download version 1.20

Download version 2.00

Installation

First remove any previous version of GhostWord (if you’ve got version 1.20 or later then first start GhostWord, go to the Options page and press the Uninstall button. Thereafter you can uninstall GhostWord through the Control Panel).

Before installing, you should close Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Then check if you have a postscript printer-driver installed:

  • If you have a driver installed, you can just use it. Note though that some drivers can cause problems with colors and pictures, so you might consider installing the recommended driver:

  • Installation of HP color laserjet 4500 postscript-driver:

Windows 95 or 98: Run the file lj477en.exe.

Windows 2000 or NT 4: Run the file lj485en.exe.

In both cases a number of files will be unpacked to a directory of your choice.

Choose Start|Settings|Printers and double-click on Add Printer. Choose local printer connected to the File port (i.e. the printer is not actually connected to your PC – it will just print to a file). When Windows ask which printer to install, choose Have disk and select the directory where you unpacked the printer files.

Then install Ghostscript by running gsXXXw32.exe (XXX is the version number). This is done the usual way.

If you want to install GhostView (not necessary if Adobe Acrobat Viewer is installed) you can run gsvXXw32.exe (XX is the version number).

Finally install GhostWord by running Setup.exe. When the installation is finished a dialog appears asking if you want to run the installed program. Choose to run the program and press Finish. It’s important to run the program right after installing as this will finish the installation and create the following icon in Word, Excel and PowerPoint: .

IMPORTANT:

If you want to uninstall GhostWord then first start GhostWord, go to the Options page and press the Uninstall button. Thereafter you can uninstall GhostWord through the Control Panel.

 

NOTE: 

Several users have reported problems with version 2.10 and Windows 95, 98 and 98SE. 

If you have problems with 95, 98 or 98SE then please try to use version 2.00. 

You can find it in Old versions

Founder & original developer:

Morten Juel Skovrup, Assistant Professor, Ph.D.
Technical University of Denmark
http://www.et.mek.dtu.dk

Open source admin:

Pritish Jacob
email:pritishjacob at hotmail.com

 

Last modified 15 Mar 2005 by  Pritish Jacob

 

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