How can I get blank records off my report

[vnfoster]

I have attached a sample of my data. I have a record that has several spots to put property in (i.e. property 2, serial 2, value2, there are 8 data fields like this in each record.) I set it up this way so that a mail merge will include all property for one person.

The issue I am having is when I do the property abandonment report, all the blank records fill in. Is there any way to not have them fill in.

 

[PNGBill]

Have you considered a SiezureTable and separately a propertytable.
You then query the property for each siezure and have data that can be included in your report. No empty fields.

TblSeizure will have Name address etc and TblProperty will have TbleSeizure reference as link.

This method will handle seizure of a container of 1000's of distinct items just as easily as for one item only.

 

[vnfoster]

That is how I had it before, but I need the property to be in one record for a mail merge that is used down the road for example. The ID 6840 could have three different individuals who own three seperate items apiece. In the letter I need a table to list all property that belongs with one person.

 

[PNGBill]

Mailmerge data would come from a query.

If you have the tables setup as they should in a database then you get all the data you need for whatever task you have in mind at the time.

Forms can allow you to view the seized items by date seized, by owners and by location seized if you have this field.

If you have a Seizure Report that starts the process then a form will head up the date, time and location of the seizure along with officers present etc.
A subform will allow you to list onto the TblProperty all the items as a new record for each item.

You will have a TblOwner and a further subform to select the owner of each entry in TblProperty.

TblSeizure holds info related to the Seizure.
TblProperty holds info related to an item - description, weight, size, estimated value etc.
TblOwner holds info related to the owner and may include a field to identfy if owner is confirmed or possible and you have owner record 0001 to be "Unknown" to cater for items seized without anyone standing up and claiming them.

Your forms will allow you to run queries as you wish that will generate, amognst other things, a mailmerge datasheet for letters to be sent out showing name of owner, seizure details, text fields related to this event and property details for that owner and that seizure ID. (you may have Owners appearing more then once)

We do a mailmerge and I have setup the data to create a temptable and then another database just has a mailmerge module that when run it generates the msword mailmerge letters. It gets it's data from the main database.
This seems to work better then just taking the table and exporting it out as mailmerge data.

Recap... use a query to collect data. If you then prefer a table to run mailmerge then have your last query a maketable query and you have your table.
Activate all this through a macro and the last entry could be to delete the temptable so you have no chance of sending letters out twice.

 

[vnfoster]

Thank you for your help, I think I understand how you suggested to work it out. I will try it and see if can set it up.