what to do?

[nelleh]

Hi,

I have to design a database which consists of user manuals for products. There are about 6500 products. So there will be at most 6500 user manuals (at most because some produkts have the same manuals).

How do I store the manuals?
1) If I use memo fields then the text can not be formatted (right?)
2) if I use embedded word documents, then the database will grow and become very big (about 1200 mb :-(, every link to a document takes 200 Kb)

So what can i do?

Nelleh

 

[Bat17]

I would leave the docs outside of Access and hyperlink to them.

Peter

 

[Andromeda]

Hi nelleh. nice to have you on board I'm sure alot of people here will be very much willing to help you out on this one.

 

[nelleh]

Hi bat17,

That is what I have done (i didn't write it correctly), I had hyperlinks and it takes 200 kb for each link....

 

[Bat17]

As a quick test I just created over 36000 hyperlinks accross 6 tables with an autonumber and the whole db came to less than 5 MB!
This is with A2002 (A200 Format) in Windows 2K

HTH

Peter

 

[Pat Hartman]

If you are prepared to purchase a RTF control, you can store the word documents in RTF format in memo fields. With the RTF control, you can manipulate fonts, colors, sizes the way you would with a word processor. The RTF format is a plain text format so it doesn't cause the bloat that storing a word document as an OLE object does. You can open any .rtf file with notepad to see the formatting commands to see what I mean.

In Office 12, due out late next year, I believe Access will ship with its own RTF control.

You can find one of these controls at www.fmsinc.com There may also be shareware options so search here and the web. Don't be put off by the price of a control like this since it comes with the ability to redistribute the control with your application.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Why not alter whats already available

Public Sub OpenDoc(Strfile As String)
On Error Resume Next
'Check To See If Word Running If So Use It
Set m_objWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")

If m_objWord Is Nothing Then
    'If In Here Word Not Running So Create It
    Set m_objWord = New Word.Application
    If m_objWord Is Nothing Then
        'If Could Not Create It Tell User And Get Out Guick
        MsgBox "Cannot Find Word 2000", vbCritical, "Word 2000 Not Installed"
        Exit Sub
    End If
End If
    Set m_objDoc = m_objWord.Documents.Open(Strfile)
    m_objWord.Caption = "Disc Jockey 2000 V.1 Manual Help"
    m_objWord.Visible = True


If Not m_objWord Is Nothing Then
    Set m_objDoc = Nothing
    Set m_objWord = Nothing
End If

End Sub

 

[nelleh]

As a quick test I just created over 36000 hyperlinks accross 6 tables with an autonumber and the whole db came to less than 5 MB!
This is with A2002 (A200 Format) in Windows 2K

HTH

Peter

Just with hyperlinks? I used a OLE field to insert the hyperlinks. Every link cost me ablut 200Kb.

 

[nelleh]

If you are prepared to purchase a RTF control, you can store the word documents in RTF format in memo fields. With the RTF control, you can manipulate fonts, colors, sizes the way you would with a word processor. The RTF format is a plain text format so it doesn't cause the bloat that storing a word document as an OLE object does. You can open any .rtf file with notepad to see the formatting commands to see what I mean.

In Office 12, due out late next year, I believe Access will ship with its own RTF control.

You can find one of these controls at www.fmsinc.com There may also be shareware options so search here and the web. Don't be put off by the price of a control like this since it comes with the ability to redistribute the control with your application.

Hi,
I had found this site already, but the price for this product now is to high for me . So I searched the web for shareware but coudn't find some.

 

[nelleh]

thank you for your help,
I think I will use just text fields with pathname and filename to the word dcs1
greetings
nelleh