Michael Maddison
michael at ddisolutions.com.au
Wed Nov 1 16:36:14 CST 2006
Thanks Charlotte, They are also looking at Sharepoint as an option. I think they just want to know what options they have. I initially proposed a database solution, we also have a live system that collates various data from multiple sources to create a govt dept annual report. We could have adapted that but they didn't seem interested. I put a nice high price on it so we'll see what happens ;-))) cheers Michael M -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Charlotte Foust Sent: Thursday, 2 November 2006 3:17 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Ideas wanted for Office project requirements I rebuilt a system somewhat like that a few years back for the US Bureau of Reclamation. They produced a report annually (well, it was SUPPOSED to be annually) by extracting data from a mainframe dumping it into Excel, copying and pasting into a Word doc and then (theoretically) totalling the whole thing up and printing an 80+ page report as mandated by statute. You'd be better off giving the managers a run-time Access app to enter their data, with a button to push to transmit it to a central location. Of course, it would be better if they simply linked to a central back end, but I'm assuming for the moment that isn't feasible. Then you need a single app to import the data and redistribute it into the appropriate tables. Then just create the report in Access or do a merge with Word if you want pretty formatting. You could certainly do it using Office automation, but you would never have the central data store at hand should a report need tweaking, and you would have to find a way to cross-foot and validate any values month by month. Charlotte Foust -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Michael Maddison Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 6:31 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: [AccessD] Ideas wanted for Office project requirements Hi all, Slightly OT. I have a client who wants to automate a report writing process. Currently they have about 30 managers who once a month send either a Excel workbook or Word doc to some lucky person. He/she then extracts the contents of each file and pastes it into a Word doc to be made into a report. I don't do much with Office these days so maybe someone will have an easy solution??? Step 1 My favoured idea so far is to create a Com-addin for Word/Excel that will take selected text/objects and paste them into a blank file, the copy the file to a file share. Step 2 the person who collates the files has another addin that loops through the contents of the share dir and opens and copies the contents into fields/bookmarks(?) in a Word doc. A 3rd component may be needed to sync the whole schmoozle. I wonder how sturdy a process like this would be... All responses welcome (except abuse... lol) cheers Michael M -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com