RTF Writer - Support for Links and Page Breaks

[Centurious]

I would like to use the RTF Writer to create a document with some Page Breaks and Links in it.
When I tried to add page break it simply outputs Page Break in the document.

[ivanlanin]

Hi @Centurious. Yes, PHPWord support for RTF are quite limited right now. I can't promise you any exact date, but support for RTF will be better shortly. You can always tweak and enhance the existing code for your need if you want, though.

[ivanlanin]

Hi @Centurious. I just added this two feature to the develop branch. Can you please test and confirm that links and page breaks can be used in RTF now? Thanks.

[Centurious]

Hi, I tried the page breaks and it works well. I tried the link and the link function itself works, however it does not seem to accept any styling. I tried passing a name style to the link and passed in an array defining a font and neither seemed to work.
Best Regards
Centurious

[ivanlanin]

Ok. I'll work on the styling tonight.

[ivanlanin]

Link styling should be working now. Please see and run Sample_15_Link.php to get the example.

[Centurious]

I tried the example but for some reason the link does not display in the RTF file at all.
My steps were:

1. Download the development code.
2. Create a new folder for it on my webserver called Playground.
3. Go to http://localhost/playground/PHPWord/samples/Sample_15_Link.php
4. Click the RTF link.
   I tried to add it to my file also with the same result.
   Best Regards,
   Centurious

[ivanlanin]

That's strange. The RTF file content is actually very simple.

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab720
{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl ;\red128\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue255;\red\green\blue;}
{\*\generator PhpWord;}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\nowidctlpar\lang1036\kerning1\fs20
{\field {\*\fldinst {HYPERLINK "http://www.google.com"}}{\fldrslt {\cf2\f0\fs20\ul Best search engine}}}\par
\par
\par
{\field {\*\fldinst {HYPERLINK "http://www.bing.com"}}{\fldrslt {\cf1\f0\fs20\b http://www.bing.com}}}\par
{\field {\*\fldinst {HYPERLINK "http://www.yahoo.com"}}{\fldrslt {\cf1\f0\fs20\b http://www.yahoo.com}}}\par
}

That's the RTF that we got when running sample 15.

[Centurious]

Aha mystery solved. I had downloaded the master copy rather than development.
I downloaded the development branch and it now sets the link as you described:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab720
{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl ;\red128\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue255;\red\green\blue;}
{\*\generator PhpWord;}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\nowidctlpar\lang1036\kerning1\fs20
{\field {\*\fldinst {HYPERLINK "http://www.google.com"}}{\fldrslt {\cf2\f0\fs20\ul Best search engine}}}\par
\par
\par
{\field {\*\fldinst {HYPERLINK "http://www.bing.com"}}{\fldrslt {\cf1\f0\fs20\b http://www.bing.com}}}\par
{\field {\*\fldinst {HYPERLINK "http://www.yahoo.com"}}{\fldrslt {\cf1\f0\fs20\b http://www.yahoo.com}}}\par
}

[ivanlanin]

Ah, so that's the case :) So you can now use styling for links in RTF? Please close this when you confirm that your issue is solved.

The RTF writer is very much underdeveloped compared to the other writers. I'm just starting to work on it during my sparetime. Feel free to help develop it if you have time. Thanks.

[Centurious]

Yes the styling for links and page breaks now works as expected.
Thank you very much for adding the code.
I would consider developing it in my spare time if there are any instructions on how to start contributing.

[ivanlanin]

Good to know that it worked. The only "contributing instruction" that we have now is this page, but you've already helped us by submitting any issue that you're facing when using PHPWord. Thanks.