I am having problems opening an existing Excel file with Tcl Tk. I am able to open an existing MS Word file with no problems. The code that I am using is as follows, also my test application has "package require tcom" included:
proc OpenFile {} {
#Path to file
set app [::tcom::ref getobject "C:\\Users\\Me\\Desktop\\Test.doc"]
#Change path to application
set this [$app Application]
#Open application
$this Visible 1
}
This code is executed by a button. Basically, Test.doc gets opened after the button is pressed.
I tried changing the file to an existing Excel file, and when I press the button the file opens for a split second, and then closes. This also happens with MS Access files, as well.
Does anyone know how to open an existing Excel file with Tcl Tk, and make it stay open? Additionally, for PDFs and text files, I understand that I cannot use Tcom to open these files. Does anyone know how to open PDFs, text, and other non-MS files with Tcl Tk?
I really appreciate your help!
Thank you,
DFM
Assuming you're on Windows and you just want to open a file (.xls, .pdf, ...) with its usual application (ie. not modifying the file from your script) you can just use "start" like this:
set TestDoc "My Test.xls"
eval exec [auto_execok start \"\" [list $TestDoc]
Related
It's maybe stupid question, but what happens behind the scenes when i double click the word app, or .exe app?
For 'Non-Developer' it just opens the file in right environment after doubleclicking. But I would like to know, how is it done, how can the file manager know what to open? (.docx in word, .txt in texteditor,etc...)
+ I would like to know how can I do that in Node.js, is it the best way to use child_process and if statements for every suffixes?
There is a file association to tell Windows how to treat a certain file extension. You can type assoc in a Windows Command Prompt to see them. As an example:
C:\test>assoc .txt
.txt=txtfile
So Windows knows now, that the file with the extension .txt is a txtfile.
ftype defines, how that filetype is to be handled:
C:\test>ftype txtfile
txtfile=%SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE %1
So whenever you doubleclick on a file, Windows checks if it is associated with any filetype. Then it looks up, how to handle that filetype and executes that command (in the example above, it opens Notepad with the filename as a parameter).
Both assoc and ftype are able to change the settings (for example to open .txt files with another editor). But if you try that, do yourself a favor and note the original settings, so you are able to revert your changes when needed.
The changes can also be done directly in the registry (not recommended, when you are not experienced in handling the registry)
For Node.js, you can use child_process to shell out to the start command which does similar things as the File Explorer.
E.g. start some/path/to/file.docx will open that file in the default program associated with the format.
I want to be able to show the GUI user the code used to do background calculations. However copying and pasting and using "\n" in a text box takes forever. Now I know you can save the code as a pdf. Is there a simple way to attach the pdf to the program and the code still be readable even when it is moved to a different computer.
Main issues:
- How to import and attach a pdf to a button...
- How to include pdf into program so it is readable on any pc...
Thanks in advance.
Packaging:
You can attach your code as pdf file with your program like this using pyinstaller
On Windows:
pyinstaller --add-data="relative/full_path_to_pdf;." my_script.py
On Linux:
pyinstaller --add-data="relative/full_path_to_pdf:." my_script.py
This will pack your pdf file and copy it to the same folder as the .exe package(in case of single file, it will extract it to the temp path along with main .exe which can be accessed with sys._MEIPASS) or You can change the extraction path instead of using '.' Read more here.
In Code:
You can add this type of button in your UI, to open the pdf file with the default viewer of Windows/Linux(same behavior as when you double click the file)
source_code_btn = Button(root, text="Source", command=lambda: subprocess.Popen('{} {}'.format(
"start" if os.name=="nt" else "xdg-open \"$#\" 2>/dev/null",
relative/full_path_to_pdf_file), shell=True))
At work I use a tool that requires me to download a .xlsx file, open it, then save it to remove the workbook protection. I'd like to create a script that automatically opens and saves any .xlsx files that are saved in the downloads folder.
I'm assuming PowerShell is the right tool to use. I found this article that explains how to do something similar, but I need help with configuring the parameters.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/scriptcenter/en-US/1faa97e0-2288-4bb2-b8ad-283df32779d4/can-i-open-an-excel-workbook-when-files-with-a-certain-extension-are-saved-in-a-specified-folder?forum=ITCG
What I need is for the script to monitor the $env:USERPROFILE\downloads folder for any .xlsx files. Then I need it to open that file in Excel (preferably in a minimized window), save it with the same filename, then close Excel.
You can use IO.FileSystemWatcher to monitor a directory. See Start-FileSystemWatcher for an example implementation in PowerShell.
I need to open/create a txt file with Excel VBA, but before opening the file I need to make sure it is not already open.
How can I know if it's open, and if so, close it before opening it again ?
Something like :
If IsOpen(File_Name) Then
Close(File_Name)
EndIf
Unless you want to re-create the same file from scratch, if the file tests open, then why don't you just use it? If it tests NOT open, then open it. Then, if it doesn't exist create it.
You may just clear out the text file if it is open and you want to restart the text instead of overwriting by creating the file again.
I'm looking for a way to have Excel files in my Matlab folder open 'outside Matlab' (i.e., by MS Excel in most cases) directly by double-clicking the file, rather than right-clicking and selecting 'Open Outside Matlab'.
The .xls files reader built in Matlab can be terribly slow for large files, and an unwanted double-click on a file can cost quite some time in which Matlab is unresponsive.
Thanks.
When you click something in the Current Folder tab, it's actually running the open command, which itself calls finfo to determine what it means by "open" for a given extension. You can see this by creating a breakpoint in open.m directly after the line [~, openAction] = finfo(fullpath); and double clicking - when it hits the breakpoint you'll see it returns openAction as uiimport.
In theory, you can create custom methods for extensions by creating on the path a function openabc where abc is the extension, which should be returned as the openAction.
However, if I look at my finfo.m it first searches for said functions and then regardless of whether or not it finds them if there is an inbuilt method it overwrites them with the standard behaviour. There's even a comment:
% this setup will not allow users to override the default EXTread behavior
If you are willing to muck about in the inbuilts, you may be able to do it like this (backup first! - this could affect other things). I did it temporarily by shadowing the existing finfo like this:
edit finfo.m (Now save a copy to the current folder)
Add these lines after the loop that defines the openAction (in my version, around line 85):
if any(strcmp(['.' ext], matlab.io.internal.xlsreadSupportedExtensions))
openAction = 'winopen';
end
From the folder containing your edited finfo.m, type which finfo -all. You should see two copies, the MATLAB one labelled as shadowed. Opening something from the current folder window should now open Excel externally.
I don't believe there's any straightforward way to do that. It's built in to MATLAB that Excel files will open in the import tool when you double click on them, and there's no way to change that.
You might be able to get around it by changing the file extension on your Excel files to something other than .xls or .xlsx. That would stop MATLAB from opening it in the import tool. Then in Windows, you could associate the new file extension with Excel.