Send report to Mac users

[DBL]

I'm using the SendObject function to attach a report to an email. Unfortunately most of the reports are sent to Mac users and they can't access the attachment if I send it in Snapshot format. I've tried rtf, txt and xls, all of which have problems on the Macs. Can I send it as a Word file? Any other formats that I could try?

Thanks.

 

[yippie_ky_yay]

Hey DBL - I'm surprised to hear about rtf and txt having problems! I'm also betting that if you had troubles with rtf, then you'll have trouble with word ones too!

Snapshot should work! Do the users who receive the snapshot file have Access installed? If not, they will need the snapshot viewer. It can be freely downloaded from the MS site:
http://www.microsoft.com/AccessDev/Articles/snapshot.htm
I've also read in this forum about how you can send a report with the snapshot viewer attached.

Alternatively, pdf is much like snapshot. If you can afford Acrobat Writer, it comes with distiller which you select like you would a printer. Instead of printing you get a pdf copy of your report. The users will need to have Acrobat Reader installed.

Let me know how it goes!

-Sean

 

[DBL]

Hi Sean

If I'm emailing to PC users Snapshot is the perfect choice but I'm emailing to Macintosh users and there doesn't seem to be a Snapshot viewer available for Macs. I'm only having problems with the reports when they are being opened on the Macs and as there is a whole department of them I doubt I can persuade them to change!

Thanks

D

 

[yippie_ky_yay]

Hey DBL - yes I think it would take a lot more than the ability to view Access reports properly to get Mac users to change! (I'd have one myself if they weren't so costly!).

Anyways, I was kinda surprised that there isn't a Mac version of the viewer too. Pdf is always a safe bet though! It's easy and fast (about as fast as creating a snapshot file) - it's also about $250 US though. I've attached one from the Northwinds db example to show you how well it works.

People put up pdf documents on the web all the time because it is the one sure way to control the layout of the document no matter what machine the user is on - so it should satisfy your needs here!

I'm still gonna look around for a Mac snapshot viewer - but I really think that pdf is the way to go because most people have the acrobat reader installed already and are familiar with it.

-Sean

 

[yippie_ky_yay]

oops - here's the document (I do this with email all the time too!)