Populate PDF forms from Access database automatically

[Mantioch]

Hello all. I am working on a personal project whereby I need to be able to automatically fill in PDF forms with data from an Access database (I apologize in advance if this question has been asked elsewhere). More specifically, I want to be able to type a Social Security number into the top line of a PDF form or a form in Access itself and have the other fields in the PDF form be completely filled out using data in the Access database. This will not be used on a web page or anything, but will be used simply for keeping typing to a minimum on a personal computer. I appreciate any advise or pointers! Thanks

Chris

 

[thornmastr]

I assume you are referring to Adobe output when you say "PDF forms". If so, you need to understand that PDF is simply an output style. It is not a screen, and neither ACCESS nor ADOBE will allow you to directly fill an ADOBE “form” using Access. What you can do is build your report and or form and then print it to an ADOBE print driver. If that is what you want post back as I might be able to help you with this.
Robert Berman
Data Base consultant
Vulcan Software Services
thornmastr@yahoo.com

 

[Mantioch]

I /think/ that's what I need to do. The friend I'm working with has some documents that his clients fill out ad nausium. These documents are .pdf files. He was wanting to keep the very same look of the document but have all of the information filled in automatically on the Adobe file given some kind of key such as an SSN. But what you are sayimg is that I could duplicate the look and style found on the .pdf document in an Access form and then transfer that with all of the relevant information to a .pdf? I'm thinking that would work. How would I do that?

 

[thornmastr]

Adobe has a print driver, which, for a long time, had a trial version. If you can get this, try it out. the only difference between the trial and the real version is the trial version also prints the ADOBE logo in the footer of every page. If you want to avoid that,it will cost you $39.95.

You want Fine Print pdFactory version 1.27. it works very well with A97 and above.
Robert Berman
Data Base consultant
Vulcan Software Services
thornmastr@yahoo.com

 

[Mantioch]

Thanks for your help, I'll definitely look into that. Something a friend of mine mentioned was populating something called an .fdf document using Access and then converting that .fdf to a .pdf. I'm not sure what a .fdf is, have you ever heard of this? Also, all that's really important is that they want to be able to "see" everything. Is there any way to take an Adobe document and turn it into a .wmf (I think that's right) so that it can be overlayed on the background of an Access form? That way, everything would stay self-contained in Access and I could overlay the form fields on this image and when it was printed it would look just like the original document.

 

[jfhewitt]

There is a forum for Adobe Acrobat...many, many threads about populating PDF forms from Access Database. Not easy. I would think that Adobe (which loves money) would make it easy, to sell Acrobats. It can be done, but is rather complicated.