Driving External Reports From Access?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JP
  • Start date Start date
J

JP

I have an Access 2000 application that collect/compute data needed to be
entered on contract forms (9-50+ pages) that will then be printed. The
forms are long and complicated and not well suited to being Access reports
(even using something like FMS Total Access Memo). The app will be
distributed onto local laptops used by sales reps and will NOT be on a
network.

I could create them as Word documents with merge fields and then drive the
Word documents from Access, BUT it is vital that the documents be protected
so that users cannot change them in the field and merge fields don't seem to
work with password protected Word documents.

Has anyone tried something like this? What software did you use for the
forms? Does anyone know if this be done with PDF and if so, can you point
me to info about how to do it with PDF?

Since the app will be distributed, we want something that doesn't require a
lot of software on the laptop and preferably something that doesn't require
a user fee for each sales rep.

Thanks.
 
John,

Thanks for the suggestion ... that would be my first choice.

Unfortunately, the sales reps have a history of modifying the contract
forms, and management feels that it would be too easy for them to create
replacement Word documents for the official contract forms. Instead,
management wants something that would require considerable more technical
expertise to replace ... such as a pdf file.

Any thoughts about how the Word documents could be made sufficiently secure
that they couldn't be easily replaced by the sales reps with their own
versions?

JP

P.S. Unfortunately, chopping off the fingers of the first sales rep who
tried it is not a viable alternative in this case -- much as I keep
recommending it to management.
 
I think I understand the problem. If the sales reps are male, you might
try chopping off a less conspicuous body part. Failing that, I believe
it's possible to write COM add-ins that control recent versions of
Acrobat (the full works, not the reader) and can fill in forms under
program control, but I've never tried. There are SDKs on the Adobe site.

Other suggestions off the top of my head:

-Upgrade to Office 2003 with its stronger document security features.

-Use an ActiveX word processor control in place of Total Access Memo.
AIUI, Total Access Memo is a rich text control that works on Access
forms (no small feat) but it's not intended for assembling and printing
multi-page documents. What I'm suggesting is programming Access to
create the contract as an RTF document using the word processor
control's object model, and then printing the contract from the WP
control; Access's report engine wouldn't come into it.

-Store your boilerplate text as PostScript code (in Access memo fields)
and write VBA code that assembles the contract as a PostScript program
and sends it to a printer or to Distiller. That way, the contract would
never exist as plain text before being printed, not even in memory.
 
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