Displaying Ole

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vel
  • Start date Start date
V

Vel

Hello,

This never really came up before, and I'm sure it's
something simple, so here goes.

I have a form whose table includes the field "portrait".
The field contains links to, you guessed it, portraits.
They are all 2' X 3' gif files. They are linked to the
table as opposed to actually inserted into it. When I
open the form, I get something like the words PortJoe.gif
as opposed to Joe's portrait. How do I display the
actual image rather than its name. I have the display
property set to "contents"

Thanks,

Vel
 
Hi -

You're right - it's really simple and it isn't.

The simple part is that you almost certainly don't have
the correct automation server attached to the file type
gif. The answer is to change the file association in
Windows Explorer->Tools->Folder Options->File Types and
associate with Microsoft Photo Editor which can 'automate
serving' a large variety of graphic file types. MS PEditor
needs to be installed from your Office 2000 CD - it can be
found in Office Tools.

Now the not so simple part. Storing - embedding or linking
OLE objects is a colossal mistake. You are rapidly
degrading the performance of your whole database and will
outgrow the db size limits of Access if you have a lot of
images. The size overhead of storing OLE objects is
humongous - as a potential example - multiply the size
your gif by 5 to get an idea of overhead.

See Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 148463 on the optimum
way to load images into Access.

Matthew
 
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