exporting access reports into word

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I have a report written in word that contains a number of tables....I copied
those tables into access reports and got the data to line up accordingly
using access...I then went to export the tables (with the data) back into
word and the only information that was exported was the data from access....

Is there anyway to keep the tables formatted and displayed when exporting
into word???

I've tried a number of different solutions, including recreating the tables
and exporting to different file types with no luck....I also tried to do a
mail merge, but I've run into limitations due to the number of
columns....It's a substancial report and, of course, it's due by Friday
(31)....

Any help would be hugely appreciated!!!!!
marc
btw - I can access all of the versions of office, 97, xp, etc...
 
Marc,

Do you mean you are outputting the Access report to a Word doc (i.e.
output to RTF format)? When you refer to the Access tables, I assume
you are referring to subreports? If you output the report to Snapshot
format, or if you print the report to a PDF file, the layout and
formatting will largely be preserved. If it has to be RTF, you may have
success with an adaptation of Stephen Lebans' Report Utilities, see
http://www.lebans.com/ReportUtilities.htm

But to be honest, I can't quite follow what is the actual purpose of
this transfer of data from Word to Access and back again. As I
understand it, the data is already displayed in Word tables. As such,
you have access (no pun intended) to Word's considerable functions for
formatting, alignment, borders, etc., so what is it specifically that
you think Access can do for you?
 
Hi Steve -

Thanx for the quick reply!!!

I have some education reports that I need to send to the federal gov't by
Friday...They are all in word and need to follow a specific format...There's
about 10 different tables and about 1000 unique fields in each
report...There's a total of 30 reports that I need to complete, one for each
city...Each report is formatted the same, only the student data will differ
for each city...

What I did was copied and pasted one of the blank (dataless) word tables
(call it Dropouts) into an access report...I then built that Dropout report
in access using it's tables and queries, figuring that I could place all of
the Dropout data (in the appropriate fields) in the Dropout Report, then
export it into word, keeping all of the formatting (column/row lines)...But,
it only exported the data and nothing else...I also recreated one of my word
tables in access (built the column lines and row lines and text so it would
mirror the word doc), yet still access would only export the data into word,
not the column/row lines....

I should have mentioned that it does have to be RTF formatted...

The goal of this is to find some way to quickly import the education data
into these word tables without having to type it in manually...

I've been able to export the data (not the formatting) by the 'publish it
with word' command and then copy and paste it into each row of a table from
there...This just seems like a ton of work and there must be a quicker
solution....I'll also mention that I tried a mailmerge with no luck....

I'll try that ReportUtilities link that you provided...

If you can think of anything else, please let me know,
marc
 
Marc,

Ok, thanks for the further explanation. No, you can't expect an Access
report to be outputted to RTF and preserve the formatting. As mentioned
in my previous reply, you need Snapshot or PDF for this. I may be
missing something here in your meaning. It still seems to me that you
can easily get your data into tables in your Word document, and that the
problem is related to layout and formatting, am I right? So, what
aspects of layout and formatting are you not able to achieve by using
Word's layout and formatting functions? I am not highly experienced
with Word, but I do know that you have considerable control in a Word
table over column widths, alignment, borders, lines, fonts, etc, etc.
 
Hi Steve -

I can very easily put my educational data in word...It's just very time
consuming typing each data element in one by one...With my knowledge of
Access, I was hoping that I could build a db that holds all of this
educational data, then do a sort by city, then build a report (that was
copied from my original Word Table) and place the data in their appropriate
cells...Then, export that report into RTF....It's just that Access will not
allow me to keep the formatting (lines and text), like you mentioned...

It just seems odd to me that when I took a blank Word table and copied &
pasted into Access, it looks just like it should on the monitor...All of my
reasons for students dropping out with appropriately lined up in their
respectful columns and rows...Then, when I put data in and try to export to
RTF, I get just the data...

It's a bummer that it happens to be a document that the gov't needs to keep
'as is'....I can't play around with it at all, in other words, I can't send
them a pdf or an image or something like that....

The only solution that I could think of was to create a mailmerge in Word,
but there seems to be a limit on the number of fields in a mailmerge...

Is there anything else that I can do with Access and my little project here???

Thanx for all of your help!!!
marc
 
Hi Steve -

I can very easily put my educational data in word...It's just very time
consuming typing each data element in one by one...With my knowledge of
Access, I was hoping that I could build a db that holds all of this
educational data, then do a sort by city, then build a report (that was
copied from my original Word Table) and place the data in their appropriate
cells...Then, export that report into RTF....It's just that Access will not
allow me to keep the formatting (lines and text), like you mentioned...

It just seems odd to me that when I took a blank Word table and copied &
pasted into Access, it looks just like it should on the monitor...All of my
reasons for students dropping out with appropriately lined up in their
respectful columns and rows...Then, when I put data in and try to export to
RTF, I get just the data...

It's a bummer that it happens to be a document that the gov't needs to keep
'as is'....I can't play around with it at all, in other words, I can't send
them a pdf or an image or something like that....

The only solution that I could think of was to create a mailmerge in Word,
but there seems to be a limit on the number of fields in a mailmerge...

Is there anything else that I can do with Access and my little project here???

Thanx for all of your help!!!
marc
 
Marc,

No, I did not mean to re-type all of your data into the Word document.
I mean to export the data from the Access database into the Word
document, as you have apparently already done. And then do the required
formatting and layout in Word, after you have the data in there. Will
this work for you? If not, why not?

Otherwise, did you look at the information at lebans.com?
 
Hi Steve -

First, thanx for all of your help this past weekend!!!!

I'm sending the reports as pdf files...I convinced them to take it that way
as they're due real soon and it would be the easiest solution for everyone
involved here...

It's too bad that I got this asssignment on 12/22 and it's due 12/31...I
clearly didn't wait until the last minute...

Word was still giving me an issue after exporting the data...The formatting
just was not lining up, no matter what I tried...And where it had to follow a
strict format, I couldn't really take the time to really 'play with it'...I
needed to start getting the data in each report....

I looked at the lebans stuff briefly and will look into it further over the
next few days, now that the pressure's off...

Thanx again for all of your time,
marc
 
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