exporting reports from Access

[Genie78]

Hi there i have an access 2003 database, which has several reports built into it.

I know want to export them but keep them in the format that is on screen

The report has a lot of formatted text fields in Boxes and my customer wants to keep that format no matter what.

I have said they could use a pdf writer or even the MDI file type but these were rejected.

The other Thought i had was a mail erge type idea, where the database would export the raw data and then a mail merge would then be ran from that, i think this maybe a bit tedious and not overly reliable... any suggestion?

 

[Remou]

You can output reports in snapshot or rtf format. Snapshot preserves the formatting very well, but you need a snapshot viewer, rtf is not so neat, but can be opened in Word. What did you want to do with the report once it was output?

 

[Genie78]

i want to email it, I have tried the snapshot option but you then have to have that file type installed on the other persons PC.

 

[Remou]

So what about RTF?

 

[Genie78]

How do you use RTF?

 

[Remou]

RTF (rich text format) opens with Word and a number of other applications.

http://www.fileinfo.net/extension/rtf

 

[Genie78]

Ah it is the text version, you loose the formatting when it is rich text

 

[Remou]

I found that last sentence a little obscure. Can you expand on it?

 

[Genie78]

sorry the formatting of the report is almost as critical as the data that it shows, so rich text format does not keep the boxes and all the data looks mashed together.

 

[Remou]

Then you do not have much choice that I can see:

- Mailmerge
- PDF
- Snapshot
- Build-your-own HTML.

That's it, I think.

 

[Genie78]

- Build-your-own HTML.


Whats this? is this where you "output to

 

[Remou]

As an aside, why was PDF shot down? Perhaps it is time to do a little laying-down of the facts. "If you want this, this and this, you either must have PDF or allow me <insert time here> to build and develop suitable CSS and HTML for output.

 

[Genie78]

I have gone down the PDF route with them but they are completly unwilling to pay for the licence.

 

[Remou]

Drat, cross-post.

To build your own HTML, you would cycle through the recordset and apply suitable tags to each output field in order to create the layout you want. The output is to a text file with a HTML extension. You must also note that many people have email set-ups that disallow HTML. PDF used to be safe for email until fairly recently, but that too is now blocked by a number of companies. It is getting to the point that the only way you can be certain your mail will not be blocked for content, is to use plain text.

Back to HTML output, just to give you a very rough idea:

[tt]For each fld In rs.Fields

Select Case fld.Name
Case "Blah"
ln="<p style='s1'>" & fld & "<p>"[/tt]

 

[Remou]

Ah, ha! There is no need to pay for a license. Look at PDFCreator and CutePDF. I use PDFCreator.

 

[Genie78]

our web team are also retentive and will not allow us to download any third party products

 

[Remou]

You are in a bind, I'm afraid.

 

[PHV]

Office 2007 has a free MS plugin for PDF creation.

 

[dhookom]

Stephen Lebans has a free report to PDF solution at

http://www.lebans.com.

You could also export to a graphic format such as JPG with SnagIt (

http://www.SnagIt.com)

which is worth many times the ~$50 cost.

Duane
Hook'D on Access
MS Access MVP