Automated Letter

[louisa]

Hello, i have standard welcome letters that go out to all customers, it is always the same except the date, contact and address.
Is there a way i can build my template letter in to my db and maybe a command button that is entered on that contact and it will add the date, contact and address and i can just print it?

 

[KenHigg]

There used to be a feature called 'mail merge' in Word (I think that's what it was called). It worked real good and even let you hook into an Access dadbase table. I'm sure a good Word book would have the details...

 

[CEH]

I knew I had something half finished laying around....
Take a look at this... See if it does what your wanting..
Put the Word template on the root of your C drive.

 

[HiTechCoach]

Hello, i have standard welcome letters that go out to all customers, it is always the same except the date, contact and address.
Is there a way i can build my template letter in to my db and maybe a command button that is entered on that contact and it will add the date, contact and address and i can just print it?

That is very simple to do with an Access report.

Access report are basically a "mail merge" when you pull data from tables print.

Once of the Advantages to using Access reports is that you can easily include multiple lines of detail. It does not have to be all in a single record. Bu using grouping, you can have each "letter" start on a new page.

 

[louisa]

Thank you for all the responses. I like the idea of using a report but how do i add my context and also company logo etc? Many thanks

 

[highandwild]

Hi Louisa

I think that you should do this with as little coding as possible and as much flexibility as possible. Word mail merge is very easy to set up.

Many people have Wordprocessing skills and can put together a Word document that just so happens to be linked to a query in an Access database. Formatting text You can add a logo as an image into the Word document. Insert - Picture - From File will probably do the trick.

Do you need to save the documents after they are printed? If so do you need a different document for each recipient?

 

[JamesMcS]

HTC was bang on - reports are definitely the way to go, text in text boxes, logos as images, super easy, no coding required (or a teeny bit depending on what you want out of it)

 

[louisa]

Thank you for coming back to me.
Firstly High and Wild - Hi, hope your enjoying the sunshine,,, i dont need to save a copy of the letter once it has gone out but maybe would need to record it somewhere perhaps just the date it went out that would be fine.
What i am hoping to do which i think maybe complicated is after i have worked out how to create this letter template! on my form i have a combo box called Status which has many different Status options. If i am in the customers record and select the combo box to change from New to Order Accepted for the letter with that customers name and address already filled in and so i can then just hit print. Do you no if this will be fairly simple, i plan to work on this over the weekend?

JamesMcS - Thank you for your reply, i like the idea of creating a report for the template letter, would i then just add a command button to create and run it? I was hoping to have the report pop up on a Status Change?

 

[highandwild]

How many orders would you accept in a single session/ day. I'm just thinking that it may be easier to print all order acceptances in one go.

Would it be that you have more than one letter for a single customer. If so then could these go in the same envelope?

Could these order acceptances / confirmations be sent by email to save money / time?

The technical bit is easy and we can see you through that once you decide how you want to do it. Pro's and Cons each way.

You must remember that I have limited battery life sitting here in the sunshine on the beach and I cannot see the screen too well. Maybe I could harness wave power!!

 

[louisa]

High and Wild, that is not very nice,,,,,sitting on the beach indeed. I am in an office trying to get my head round access db's :-(

Order accepted would be no more than one per day.
Only one letter would go out to one customer at a time.
I would prefer to send via letter than email.

I will try and explain our process. Once an order has been sold it will be entered on to the db with a status of new, this order would then be passed to a director who will either sign the order off (Accept Order) or reject the order (no further action would be req) from new to Accept Order that is when i require the welcome letter to open so i can just hit print and place in an envelope ready for posting.

Thank you for taking the time to reply while you are on a beach!!!!

 

[JamesMcS]

Yep, probably best to put something like docmd.openreport... check the syntax in the help file, but you can make it open a report based upon values in a form (i.e. having selected a customer)

 

[highandwild]

I spent many years in an office doing what you are doing now but I am now recovering from ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so sitting on the beach is just the tonic.

I had problems doing a mail merge in Word based upon an Access query for just one letter so I created a text / CSV file that the document links to in the end. It works fine.

That would not be a problem if you create an Access report.

If you get your head around doing Access reports that will open up a ream of possibilities for you.

I'll see if I can find a generic example somewhere.

Meanwhile......just waiting for the Mackeral to be caught and then dinner.

 

[JamesMcS]

Mmmm mackerel..... [drool]

 

[GaryPanic]

Access reports would be the route to go down -

however if there is a need for Word - then Super easy word - is really easy to handle -

import a couple of forms bit of code import and you are off -
you make 1 button on the record and everytime you press it it opens up a mail merge form you select the doc to merge and whizz bang - job done-

down side is that it lesses nubmer formatting - upside is that you can reformat numbers in word with word functions - you need to check on what they are called - (the name slips from my memory )

 

[louisa]

Thank you for all your responses. I am going to try and tackle this over the weekend.
The main problem i think i will have is getting the letter to pop up on a status change so any advise you can give me in order to create this would be much appreciated. I am very new to access unfortunately so do not carry much knowledge on it at the moment.

 

[JamesMcS]

I think that would depend on how you change status. As an example, if it's with a combo box, there's an event called afterupdate which kicks off once you've selected something in the combo box (works slightly differently for text boxes, you have to leave the control to kick the event off) - in this event, put your docmd.openreport code and presto!

 

[highandwild]

Hi Louise

Try this database for size.

I just amended one I found but it will demonstrate the technique.

Let me know if there is anything about it that you do not understand.

If you crack this by hometime today you can come down to the beach at the weekend.

 

[louisa]

Yay thats exactly what i want, well i have an hour and a half to crack this then maybe i can go to the beach instead of working on this over the weekend.

 

[wiklendt]

Access reports would be the route to go down -

however if there is a need for Word - then Super easy word - is really easy to handle -

import a couple of forms bit of code import and you are off -
you make 1 button on the record and everytime you press it it opens up a mail merge form you select the doc to merge and whizz bang - job done-

down side is that it lesses nubmer formatting - upside is that you can reformat numbers in word with word functions - you need to check on what they are called - (the name slips from my memory )

not been so whizz bang for me, i'm afraid. i'm trying to set up my first ever mail merge and it's not going great... as a start, i can't get word to recognise any of my queries within my database. attached is the process i'm undergoing. can anyone see where i'm going wrong?

i can't seem to find any solutions online - everyone just assumes you can select queries from the 'select recipient list' (or wizard). i found one site where they advised a checkbox in the advanced options, which i did (first pic int he attached PDF), but this only added an "OLE DB database file" source dialog box in between all the others without adding the queries to the selectable list at the end....

 

[wiklendt]

not been so whizz bang for me, i'm afraid. i'm trying to set up my first ever mail merge and it's not going great... as a start, i can't get word to recognise any of my queries within my database. attached is the process i'm undergoing. can anyone see where i'm going wrong?

i can't seem to find any solutions online - everyone just assumes you can select queries from the 'select recipient list' (or wizard). i found one site where they advised a checkbox in the advanced options, which i did (first pic int he attached PDF), but this only added an "OLE DB database file" source dialog box in between all the others without adding the queries to the selectable list at the end....

ok, figured it out. i had to connect the two using the DDE option, which in the list states it's for *.mdb and *.mde files, even though my database is an *.accdb, this option works go figure.