[AccessD] Word Automation

Jurgen,

I have a possible solution to the logo linking from a single server.

Take a look at Auto FE Updater.  It's at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm.

This is intended to automatically update a client FE when the FE master copy
on the server is changed.  However, it does this by uploading everything in
the target folder when anything in the target folder has changed.  So, when
you change one logo, the next time the user logs in, all the logos in the
folder automatically get uploaded to the client PC.  Then, the logos can be
linked without causing a conflict.

You'll need to review the above site for the whole story.

Good Luck,
Dan Waters


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of J?rgen Welz
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 1:17 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Word Automation

I need to find a solution to updating letterhead logos.

My employer has 8 offices and operates as various companies, union and 
non-union, with various labour companies and joint ventures.  Up to this 
point, I have created several hundred templates reflecting the various 
combinations for Contracts, Faxes, Letters, Memos, Change Noitice, 
Transmittals, Requests for Information, Rate Changes, Tenders, Warranties, 
Bid Bond orders, Price Requests.......................................

The list goes on and on.  I could have 1000 templates.  In most cases, I 
have a single template of each type for each logo for document creation by 
the application.  However, I need the hundreds of additiional versions for 
those users who do not have access to the application.

Most of the templates are Word dot files and any document that can have more

than one page, nearly all, has a subsequent page header with a smaller 
version of the logo.  Bottom line, I could be updating a couple thousand 
logos.

In the past, I had tried using linked rather than embedded logos.  Change 
the file at linked location and the file is the correct logo and the job is 
done.  But of course, the logo is lost in the case of emailed docs (the 
company has a jealously protected........... collateral program so they 
shouldn't be emailing their docs should they?).  The bigger problem that I 
had with linked graphic logo files is that I frequently have users hitting 
the same template concurrently and the subsequent user(s) get a file locked 
message.  I could copy all the hundreds of files to a separate location for 
each user but this is getting unweildy, and that doesn't solve the email 
problem.  Another problem is that the logos for all the primary players has 
changed 3 times in the last two years.  They actually had 1.5 MByte Tif 
files that swelled my 35k templates beyond insanity for a few months when I 
campaigned for .Wmf files several years ago.  (They said, no problem, 
storage is cheap.  I asked whether they could add bandwidth as we had 
laptops synching thousands of files over a 128kbit ISDN connection and 
merely opening and printing such files would bring the whole system to a 
crawl.  Bandwidth was not cheap.  I told them since storage was so cheap, 
they could update all our laptops while they were ate it.)

An alternative is to use embedded files and run code to embed the logo at 
run time.  An even better method might be to insert one template layer .Dot 
file (I can't nor would I want to change Normal.dot) for each logo that runs

code essentially identical to the Access automation code I would have to 
write, but would work for people who do not use our Access application.

Here's the question.  When I tried implemeting this last time, the macro 
recorder in Word would record the insertion of a graphic, but I could not do

a thing with the graphic while the recorder was running.  I think that the 
Picture toolbar was unavailable in Access 97 and 2000.  In Word 2003, I can 
select items on the Picture toolbar, but I can't select the graphic to apply

the action to the graphic.  If I select the graphic before impelementing the

macro recorder, it remains selected, but if I select a picture toolbar 
button, I still cannot affect the graphic.

I'l like to movesize the graphic to a specified location with a standard 
height that is different for the 1st and subsequent page logo and also 
different from the default size of the graphic when inserted.

I have been asked to implement a logo change immediately, but the current 
version of a typical version is 1,736 bytes and the outlines are too 
obviously segmented for me to manually change all the logos now, only to 
redo it again with improved files a month from now.

Also, anybody know a decent WMF converter?  Cheap?  I have dozens of 
approved bmp, tif, jpg, gif, eps and several Mac versions of files in dozens

of sizes I could convert, but the only .wmf files are under 2k and appear 
off in color and lack the quality I believe should appear on the letterhead 
of a firm that hired an outside consulting firm for assistance with its 
collateral program.  With a conversion program, I might be able to fine tune

a pair of graphics for each logo that would make them the correct sizes upon

insertion and modify margins to get the correct insertion point.


Ciao
Jürgen Welz
Edmonton, Alberta
jwelz at hotmail.com