MSAccess check box again

[drblackard]

How can I attach a word document to a check box on a form? The same church database as before but they want to attach a death article scanned into Microsoft Word (or a bitmap) to the death date check box. I guess I really need to add a button to the area to view this after you have successfully checked the box once so you can view it again later if needed. Thanks in advance.

 

[MajP]

You can do this two ways depending on the size of you db. Putting word documents, pictures, or other OLE objects in the database makes your DB grow very quickly. A 1 meg file may make your database grow 3 megs. So sometimes it makes sense to store the files in another directory and only keep a link to them. The best way to do this is to put a folder in the same folder as the DB and you can then find the relative path if you move the db around. This method requires some code. The other method is to embed the document directly into an OLE field. This is far easier to do, but as said may bloat your db.

If you are a new user I would just stick it in the field. Unless you have lots of records or the documents are very large.

To show the field, see your other post. Same as the date field. Once the document is in the OLE field you double clicking on it will open it. If your store a hyperlink to it you can double click to open.

Which one you want?

 

[drblackard]

Hi,
Thanks for your prompt attention. Hyperlink would probably be the best way, am I correct? Less space in the database and storage on the hard drive. Correct me if I'm wrong but this makes more since.

 

[MajP]

Maybe, both ways have issues.

Embedded:

pro
-goes where the database goes
-simple

con
- bloats database

linked:

pro
-no increase in db size
-can work on the document external to the db

con
-move the folder break the link
-dead links
-may require a little programming to make a nice interface to get the URL. ie. File dialog. Unless you like typing in URLs.

20, 1 Meg documents: I would Embed
200, 1 meg documents: I would link

Number and size is the issue.