Can someone give me an idea of the complexity of what I want to have done? I'd like to get a sense of how much the back-end programming should cost so I don't get hosed.

- I want to take form elements (many, ~30 - 50) and save them to a MySQL database. This can be done without too much of a headache.

- I want to then take this information and merge it with a Word document template (i.e. take the field data and populate it into an existing Word document) which the user (the person filling out the form) can download/save/print, etc.

- If that's too over the top, maybe it could just create an HTML file on-screen that can be downloaded/saved/printed (and opened with Word).

I have a form (totally unrelated and very small) that dumps the data into a database and emails me when that happens (easy stuff) and I can imagine how that would expand to a larger form. I also know that PHP can pull that out and display it easily (Wordpress) in an (X)HTML format. But I'd love to know if that Word component is possible and how much time this might take for an experienced programmer.

Thanks in advance!

You may definitely create an rtf document with php, but you hardly can create doc files. Look at sf.net for something like "php to rtf".

Originally Posted by mtishetsky

You may definitely create an rtf document with php, but you hardly can create doc files. Look at sf.net for something like "php to rtf".

I figured as much about the DOC thing. I'll check out the link you posted, thank you.

Anyone else with experience doing this?