Why does Snapshot viewer installer ask for Office cd???

[kyster]

Hi all!
I have to distribute a report via snapshot viewer to 100 consultants in the company each day. Not every consultant has office installed so it's asking for the cd when ever they try to view a snapshot file. Why?! I thought snapshot viewer was there to view reports for people who don't have office?
Does anyone know of a way to get snapshot viewer working without an office cd?

Thanks!

 

[jonomac]

I believe it only comes as part of Access, so if you don't have Office Professional which comes with Access on your desktop you won't have it.

I did a search in Google and found a link straight away for download from Microsoft... get every user to download the application from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3f-6d74-423d-8274-8b7e6313edfb&displaylang=en

 

[Lightwave]

Snapshot viewer is great but does require the snapshot software - you will probably find it easier to use pdf factory - cost hardly anything and then all you need to do is install on the machine from which you are going to produce the report.. Formatting of report is not altered in anyway by the pdf factory

Then free to distribute the pdf to whoever you want to and everyone has access to pdf viewing software for free.

Snapshot viewer is MS effort at stealing back market share from the adobe pdf boys....

M

 

[kyster]

Thats exactly the copy i have downloaded already and am having problems with. I've downloaded the snpvw.exe program and distributed it to everyone. The problem is that it installs fine, but when they go to open a *.snp file it asks them to insert the office cd. They don't all have office so I'm in a quandry.

However converting to PDF is a brilliant idea! Thanks very much for that. I'll give it a try.

-> Okay just tried pdf factory. I realise a flaw in this delivery system and that is that access can't auto-generate to pdf like it can to snapshot format. Can it? So the snapshot format still has to be opened first in snapshot viewer and THEN turned into PDF fomat which is a whole lot of work to do 100 times a day.

My current system is that the sales managers in diferent cities recieve a database via email daily. They are then able to view each individual record as a form. On each record is an email button. They peruse all the records and assign each one to a diferent consultant. They do this by clicking the email button which has a script that auto generates the record into a report in snapshot format. All they have to do is enter the consultants email address and the snapshot is sent off to the appropriate consultant.

How can the pdf conversion be automated in a system like this?

 

[Lightwave]

Hi Kyster,

The short answer is yes it is possible..

I had a quick go at trying to do it now. If you set up a button on your form to print the report and then alter the default printer on your machine to the pdf factory. As soon as you hit the button the pdf is generated. At this point you can either send the report on as part of an attachment to an e-mail or print / save the report. This effectively uses pdf as snapshot viewer.

There will be other ways of doing it as well. I suspect there are also ways of definingin the printer (and therefore the pdf factory) when using the print command.

Did a quick search and found this thread

http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=89632&highlight=default+printer

Goes through automatically changing the printer default settings... Hunch is that this would work. Note that you will need to get round the dialog box that comes up and asks you to name the file...

All possible though.

 

[kyster]

Thanks Lightwave! I found the same thing by experimentation. That link for automating the print dialogue sounds just what i need to make this a one click operation. Thankfully you can email directly from PDF factory as well.
Awesome work! I really appreciate the time you put in for me

 

[jonomac]

Amazing that of my very few contributions to this site, someone has actually referenced something I've written into another thread I'm writing on!

Hope the change default printer procedure works for you!

 

[kyster]

Hi Jonomac!
Yes it is working brilliantly for me. I thank you humbly from the deeper part of my inner being...somewhere between the solar plexus and my inability to code

Combining your change printer code with PDF Factory really gives a slick look to the end product as well. Previously our consultants were recieving faxed, hand written scribble for information. Now they are recieving clear and crisp typed out PDF documents. I've finally brought the company I work for out of the dark ages!

Thanks again!

 

[Lightwave]

Cheers Jonomac - useful posting's are never going to be overlooked...

 

[OmegaMan]

Wrong answer

As with most poor programmers, all that was given here was a work around instead of an answer to the original question, "Why does the user need the cd?"

I am having the same problem and need an answer, not an alternative. The PDF generation seems simple, except our snapshots are generated automatically, named with a job number and stored into a specific job folder very time the report is printed. To answer those questions each time for the PDF format is unreasonable.

Any help associated with the original question would be appreciated.

 

[RV]

As with most poor programmers, all that was given here was a work around instead of an answer to the original question, "Why does the user need the cd?"

So why bother then to post on the forum

RV