Creating a formatted template for .txt files

anthonydinarda · 2015-04-06T13:17:47.000Z

Just curious if anyone has info on this.

We’re using an automated label system here at the factory and on a lot of labels we have baking instructions, we’re a bakery factory yum.

Before when we hard coded the labels we would just mess around with the formatting by hand until it looked proper on the label. Now, as we’re using the automated system, the baking instructions are generated through a database where we hyperlink to .txt files that contain the baking instructions. The problem is these .txt files we are hyperlinking to are not formatted to look proper on the label and it will be difficult to get our employees who write these baking instructions to format them properly as they are not really involved in the process of automating the labels.

Because of this, I was wondering if there was someway to create some kind of template that would have all the proper formatting within it and all they would have to do is fill in the text. Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you need any more info please ask.

THANKS!

anthonydinarda · 2015-04-06T13:26:59.000Z

Also, I just got an idea that I could maybe create such a template in excel and then just export that as an .txt file. Anyone mess with that?

1101 · 2015-04-06T14:27:58.000Z

Uhm… I don’t think you can format .txt files… I’ve never seen options to save formatting such as font type, size, color, in a .txt file… Maybe what you mean is to apply formatting to the content of a .txt file through means of integration or display in another interface?

I would create a web interface, output the content from the .txt files and format it with CSS, a little HTML, jQuery, and CSS is all that’s required for a simple interface such as this.

joesyuh · 2015-04-06T14:42:17.000Z

From what I understand that you are saying is that the automated system just looks in a database and that part of the database points it to a text file… is there any way to just have it point to a different type of file that is more easily formatted? Will the automation system take any other input besides .txt?

anthonydinarda · 2015-04-06T15:22:39.000Z

1101:

Uhm… I don’t think you can format .txt files… I’ve never seen options to save formatting such as font type, size, color, in a .txt file… Maybe what you mean is to apply formatting to the content of a .txt file through means of integration or display in another interface?

I would create a web interface, output the content from the .txt files and format it with CSS, a little HTML, jQuery, and CSS is all that’s required for a simple interface such as this.

OOO! I just started out teaching myself those languages and that sound’s like a good project.

Really I found a workaround at the moment, I have a .txt document with the correct formatting and they can just insert the text needed into that.