"Dave" wrote
OLE Objects cannot have transparent
areas, at all.
OLE Objects simply wrap various types of files and store them. They do not
modify the internals of the wrapped files. OLE Frames employ the registered
software to display the file from the OLE Object. It is possible, of course,
that the combination of OLE Frames and the software registered for the file
type does not support transparency.
I imagine that you are not making very
fancy reports.
You are correct -- my clients don't pay for "fancy", and they don't pay for
"glitz and glitter". They pay for solutions to their rather normal, modest
business issues.
Want to put a transparent PNG in front
of some report data? Sorry, you can't.
No, I have never had a need to use a PNG, much less a transparent one.
I'm not using Access for "image
processing". I'm using it to generate
creative mail pieces and statements
which require subreports.
It certainly reads to me that "image processing" is exactly what you want to
do. Perhaps a database is not the appropriate tool for creative mail
pieces -- or perhaps someone here could direct you to where on the Microsoft
site they maintain a "wish list" into which you could place a request for
some specific enhancements to image handling in reports.
Nothing you have described prevents using subreports.
Off-topic, but I would like to be able to
lock items from accidental movement. My
reports are complex (mail merge letters,
statements, etc.).
I don't think that is off-topic at all. You can prevent users from modifying
the design:
You can create an MDE, which locks down the
design view of any object that can have an
associated module -- including reports and
forms.
You can apply Access security and not give
users permission for design view, if you have
a compelling need to maintin the MDB
form. You can even use this to block yourself
from modifying the design of a particular
report. But it is not as easy as a single-click to
lock the object would be.
I wonder if Word will handle transparent images...
but I know it won't handle subreports.
Because Word is not a database program, I don't even see how subreports
apply. Word doesn't "handle reports", either; it handles documents. In
regard to Word handling transparent areas in images, that would be a good
question to ask in one of the microsoft.public.word... newsgroups.
Of course not; that would be productive.
Well, it is a good thing we are at liberty to politely disagree, because I
certainly disagree. In a previous incarnation as a mainframer and
microcomputer developer, I have been involved in the architecture and design
of software. There are many, many factors in a particular architecture or
design decision, and, in my experience, the decision was recorded but not
the debate leading to it.
It would have been extremely counterproductive to put us in a position of
trying to explain and defend every design decision to anyone who chose to
second-guess, as would be the case if the Access design team responded to
"why" questions in newsgroups.
One major factor is the intended user audience; and, I suspect, developers
of creative mail pieces are a rather small part of the expected user
audience for what was, after all, thought to be just a nice little desktop
database (and surprised everyone, including its developers, with the breadth
of functionality that it actually had).
Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
