¿¿¿How to do this in an easy way..???

[shkrebs]

Hi there.

I need some wise words regarding how to "attack/solve" this task.

- I got a acounting system, based on Access -97.
- I got a logistick company which is taking care of sending out our books.
- I got every day an amount of packinglists from the acounting system, which I'm sending to the logistick company, so they can send out my books. I'm using a fax at the moment.

I want to change this rutine, so instead of using the fax I want to send a DB to the logistick company, containing a report for the packinglists and the data for that day.

This takes I find out how to copy the records from the acounting system to the little DB I want to send.
Not a big problem technically but how to do it - IN A USERFRIENDLY WAY ??????????????????????????

Shall / can I use a form to select the records?
Shall / can I use VBA to do it?
How can I automize the exportfunction?

Pleeeaaaasee - clear my mind, I got ton of ideas but I don't know how to get started.....

Best regards
Don Herman

 

[ColinEssex]

Hi

Do you think it may be possible for you to create the list as a report then email it to the packing company?

Col

 

[shkrebs]

Hi Col.

No - unfortunately
My first idea was to create a report in the acounting system and just e-mail that report directly to the trans.comp. but the e-mail function in this acounting system is very poor, and when I tried to e-mail a packinglist on more than one page the result was awful. The problem is that the trans.comp. not only needs the data to pick the books but also to print out the packinglist and send it with the books.
Then I was thinking about making and export to Excel and make a template in Word, but since the packinglists are dynamic I can't use that method either

I don't know if it's impossible what I'm trying, but I've seen so many great and complicated solutions in Access, so I guess can be done, but how

Thanks

 

[The_Doc_Man]

A possibility that you might not have tried yet, don't know.

Create the reports that contain your day's order list (one report) and the daily data you mentioned (second report).

On your report pane's iconic tool bar, there should be an icon that is either a W (like the Word logo) or an X (like the Excel logo) depending on the last thing you exported. It leads to a drop-down list of options.

Export the reports to Word. That does an OLE open of word with the report converted to .RTF format. Now, RTF should transmit OK, but if you want it as basic as possible, you can force Word to export the report as a .TXT or .CSV file, which should be about the minimum for any report. (This assumes that when your copy of Office was installed, you did a full install, or at least a custom install that included the Text Import/Export wizard options.)

Your e-mail package ought to be able to handle a .TXT file. Be warned that you get positively NO pretty formatting if you use this export method. No big-letter titles, no italic or bold fonts.

AS AN EXPERIMENT, you might try sending a .RTF through your local e-mail system to verify that it can be sent. In which case, the Text Import/Export wizard might not be necessary.

If you've already tried this, I apologize for wasting your time.

 

[shkrebs]

Hi Doc_man.

Don't apologize, I guess once long time ago, you were in the same situation as me so you know how much you value a helping hand !!!

I haven't tried that solution yet, but where do I find the *.RTF file with my report - in the Access lib??

Maybe you can tell me if what I want to do is very complex, crazy or just a typically newbee aproche which is doomed from the beginning??
I'm asking because I thought that exchange of data between companies - today - is a quite normal procedure and therefore my "little" export problem was something 1000's of people had solved loooooong time ago But I only got 2 replies ...

Anyway - txs for your input, I'll go ahead and make some tests.

Best regards
Soren

 

[The_Doc_Man]

An .RTF file comes from the way Access exports reports, forms, and datasheet views to Word.

RTF is "Rich Text File" which is one of the common Windows file types. Wordpad (but not Notepad) will use RTF correctly, I think. The RTF does not include lines, drawings, boxes, etc. Since it doesn't do rectangles, it doesn't do SHADED rectangles like those sometimes generated by report wizards. All it does is get FONT NAME, FONT BOLD, FONT ITALIC, and FONT SIZE attributes correct for any text items. Any other special effects.... forget it. In particular, if you export something with a border (like a text box on forms or reports), you see the text but not the border.

If you have a reasonably full-blown Office installation, RTF file conversion should be an intrinsic part of both Access AND Word because of the libraries they share.

You find the export icon for Word/Excel in the Icon bar (not the Menu bar) when you have selected the Reports sub-pane of the Access window. Somewhere in the middle.

If you aren't sure, and if your tool tips are turned on in the Tools>>Options screen, just move your cursor over each icon to see what it says. On mine, the tool tip reads "Office Links"

If your e-mail is SMTP compliant (and particularly if it is a POP3 class service; ask your network manager if you aren't sure about that), you should be able to share .RTF files to other Windows systems. However, if the target system ISN'T Windows (perhaps because it is running UNIX or some other operating system), RTF might not work at the destination machine. Hence the idea of using .TXT or .CSV formats as an extreme case.

 

[shkrebs]

Hi again Doc_Man

I've tried your solution and technically wise it works, but my company here don't want to accept the "new" design of the packinglist . . . soooooo I'm back to point zero

Thanks for your time and help.
Soren

 

[Jeff Bailey]

You can make a 'Snapshot' of the Report(s) and send the snapshot files as attachments to an email. The recipient will need a copy of the 'Snapshot Viewer' (free download) but it's all quite straightforward.

The download is named snpvw90.exe

It's about 1.7mb.

I use it quite a lot. My clients like it.

Jeff

 

[shkrebs]

Hello Jeff.

THAT's sounds like a good idea. I've downloaded and installed the SnapShot program but when I'm trying to export a report I don't have this type *.snp in the list of formats.
I'm running Win98 rel.2 and Access -97

Any suggestions?

Best regards
Soren

p.s. Yes, I have restarted my PC

 

[Jeff Bailey]

Try the Office97 Value Pack (On the CD).

"Not all file types are installed by default. To add other file types ... Additional file types are ...

this is a note at the bottom of the 'Save As/Export', To An External File or Database dialog box.

HTH

Jeff

 

[shkrebs]

Jeff, sorry to disturb you again, but could you give me a hint, how to install extra filetypes?
I've been searching the help of Access and the ValuePack, but everything here is in spanish, and I'm not fluent in spanish ... yet so I'm still missing a lot of technically terms.

Best regards
Soren Krebs

 

[Jeff Bailey]

'Snapshot' should be the bottom option in the Save As Type drop down box at the bottom of the Save As dialog box. I believe it should be there by default - although you will have to scroll down the list.

Jeff

 

[The_Doc_Man]

What you are telling me is that they want to see all the pretty lines and other formatting.

The only way I know to do this "right" is to not do this directly from Access. Instead, do a MailMerge. There is no other way to include lines, pretty headers, and shading in a Word document that comes from an Access database. I could go into a lengthy diatribe of Bill Gates and the issues associated with this failing, but that wouldn't be productive. So I'll merely suggest that you can do some kinky things to get done what you have to get done.

Build as many MailMerge templates as you need to do this. Make them separate files if you have to. Build your detail areas as a MailMerge. Build your headers as separate MailMerges. Then...

Use the "external document" feature within Word to build-in a total document that contains the pieces parts, formatted, to contain the stuff you needed to see. This won't be easy, but it is possible. I know of no other way to approach the problem of losing report formatting when transferring Access information to an external report.

Wait, that is not ENTIRELY true...

See if you can get the device driver they use for their local printer. Install that on your machine. Then, do a printer select operation to connect to that driver. Then do a print-to-file option.

The file can ONLY be printed, but if you can do a binary data transfer Windows-to-Windows, you can preserve report formats that way.

OK, NOW that's the end of the list of ways to preserve report formatting when sending reports.