form design question

  • Thread starter Thread starter mdooly
  • Start date Start date
M

mdooly

Can I use a word file, that is a contract for example,
and import that into access and use it to build a form? I
want the areas of the word file that were just standard
fill in the blanks, and replace the blanks with database
columns.
I have tried to import the word file but it gets treated
like an object. I want the layout and text to be the
foundation of the form itself.

Thank you in advance.

Respectfully
mdooly
 
Perhaps a more important question is, what tables will you need in order to
store the contract data from the documents?

Storing data in a database product like MS Access, is totally different to
storing data in a word processing document. It is not just a trivial
difference. It requires you to learn a whole new set of ideas. For an
example of some of the issues involved, see the following article:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q100139.ASP

If all of the Word documents have exactly the same details, perhaps you will
not have a problem. But if they will often have different details, you will
need to design your database tables properly. You should really do that
first<, before you start worrying about "user interface" issues like how
Click to expand...
the data will get in the tables.

HTH,
TC
 
It is possible to put an unbound image frame on your form, set its SourceDoc
property to your Word document, and size it to the same size as your form.
Then use the Format menu item to "Send to Back", so that all the other
controls display on top of it.
However,
a. This makes it very clumsy to develop, as anytime you click on it, it
gets the focus. So if you're going to go this way, I'd suggest holding off
on adding this "background" until as late as possible in the process.
b. Such a form is resource-intensive. Your mdb file will grow in size for
each such form you create, and this form will always take a long time to
load, especially if you're using an older PC.

HTH
- Turtle
 
Neat! To avoid the development problem,. maybe you could make the control
quite small at design time, then resize it in Form_Open.

TC
 
No, but you can certainly fill out a ms-access form, and then SEND THE data
to a word template. This would seem to be a much more reasonable approach.

You put the data into a database, and then when you need to generate the
word doc, you do a merge to word.

I have a working sample that does just that. Check out:

http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn/msaccess/msaccess.html

If you are actually trying to pull data from word into ms-access, then my
above suggestion is not much use!
 
Yes, except that a major part of development is usually locating your
controls (generally textboxes) appropriately on the background.
For that, you need the background full size.

- Turtle
 
Yes (duh)! Then, perhaps an addin which resizes the control at design time?
So, when you open your form in design view, the control is small (so it does
not interfere with other things). But if you run the addin, the control is
resized up (in design view)?

TC
 
I suppose it's largely a matter of changing your habits.
A couple of my habits at design time are:
clicking on the section background beside a control to remove focus from
it.
with a full-sized unbound object frame behind everything, that
object then gets the focus.
selecting a group of controls by drawing a line around them.
a full-sized unbound object frame gets selected along with the
objects I want.
Neither of these is a show-stopper - there are other ways to do both.
It's just cumbersome.
(It's hard for old turtles to learn new tricks.)

My guess is that by the time I'd developed an add-in like the one you
propose, I could have laid out the "background" as labels on a form. (I'm
not much of an add-in developer, either...)

Anyhow, even if you get through the cumbersome development, you've got the
slow performance loading the form, and the database bloat this causes.
I think of it as a quick and dirty way to operate - one I know about, but
prefer to avoid.

- Turtle
 
Back
Top