Need to Create Word doc from Access BUT...

[DougP]

I have done the Mail merge but in this case I have an Invoice with a header and one to many details

Any ideas





DougP, MCP

 

[AnonGod]

Doug

Have you heard anything new on this?

I need to do the EXACT same thing!

Thanks!
-Andrew

[TAG]
anongod@hotmail.com
"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."

 

[TraylorAssoc]

What about using DoCmd.OutputTo to export the form/report to an .rtf file? Would that suffice?

 

[ekim]

Have the same problem here. Management mocked up a report in Word, we replicated it in Access, but now they want to distribute it in Word for electronic editing along the workflow.

Snapshot is not editable.

RTF drops practically all formatting.

Mailmerge seems only good for simple flat file data sets. To do groupings and such is very ugly from all I have seen -- everybody has their own kludgy workaround --maketables, convoluted VBA, bookmarks, etc. If anybody out there has a simple, straight-forward solution I'd appreciate hearing about it.

 

[DougP]

The only thing I found is using Adobe Acrobat to create a .pdf file. This it the full version not the freebie.
You can however test the results free on their web site.
Adobe is $300.00 or more depending on which version you get.
Then you have to automate it which is not easy either.

DougP, MCP, A+

 

[ekim]

Thanks Doug. I thought about that. Didn't think it would be feasible for editable report distribution. Given the much touted automation I wanted a way to use existing/familiar MS applications. I'm going to look into

http://www.lebans.com/DownloadFiles/ReportUtilities.zip

which I picked up out of a post in Tek-tips

 

[DougP]

There is another option:
Write VBA code to open a DDE link to Word and have it write everything line for line.
Arduous at best.

Or create a Word Macro to create the document line for line and run it from Access.
Either of these will take a very long time to create and debug unless you are expert at it.

DougP, MCP, A+

 

[ashij]

Hey Guys, I'm not much of a script guy, but I think one of the ways to solve this is if you have microsoft word 200 or later (XP and 2003). I work on MS Office 2003, but I just went to a workstation with MS Office 2000 and checked the features availibility.
MS Access does let you change your access reports into Word or Excel. To trythis, go ot: "Tools" (and expand the menu) --> click on "Office Links" --> "Publish It With Microsoft Word". the problem that I faced though is that Word doesn't treat MS Access Page Headers and Footers and Page headers and Footers, but just oridinary text. It'll also not see your other formatting that you might have done in Access. Hope this helps.

AshiJ

 

[ekim]

Thanks ashi. The problem is that these reports must appear exactly as they were formatted.

 

[ashij]

This is a mystery to me too don't know what to do myself, but I'll see if I find anything!!

AshiJ

 

[Lightning]

Iv'e been doing this type of thing a lot in my current project, and I export the data from Access into a bookmark in a Word template. The Access 2002 Desktop Developer's Handbook, Chapter 12 has a very good example of how to do this. The example is about creating Invoices.

HTH
Lightning

 

[ekim]

Thanks Lightning

I'll check into it. That is one of the few Access books I have not purchased -- yet.

Does it look like one can do more than one level of grouping?

For example, my report has, say, a department and then within that a unit and for each unit I have detail records under three categories. So my Acces report starts new page breaks at unit level and department but provides continuous listing for categories while changing the heading info on the categories as they change.

Does it seem like I can do that with bookmarks? I assume the bookmarks just provide a landing place for the data. Not sure how to control page breaks and headers and footers programmatically other than style references in the document template itself. Not too up on programming in Word.

Thanks