[AccessD] Weird problem - ugly logo in reports

Jurgen Welz jwelz at hotmail.com
Wed Apr 28 19:37:22 CDT 2010


Where photos aren't needed, my preference is WMF files because they are tiny and fast.  Being vector based they, scale very well to all sizes.  At one time I defined a font to match the logo characters and added an opening parenthesis and underline to match the 'swoop' that underlines our name.  This keeps our logo a bit more proprietary in that only network users have the font and anything we scan, print or send as PDF looks right.  The logo can't be directly stolen from emailed DOC or XLS attachments though it didn't appear quite correct with substituted fonts at the recipient end.  We wound up sticking to the WMF standard and our corporate logo is 7k and looks great from 1/4" to full page tabloid.  Some views in Access on screen show jaggies but the printed output is always flawless.

 

I've always had a strong preference to use Word and Excel for reporting.  An Access report looks fine for a snapshot in yimr, but I've found it many times more useful to run a dump to Excel and provide some auto filters and cross sheet summarization.  One typical example is our crew list that we use to track the daily location of our workers.  Each office gets a 7 sheet Excel workbook instead of the former Access report.  We never stored the crew list data but merely changed the ID of the Job that a worker was assigned to and ran a report.  The result was that our managers printed the crew list daily and had no access to history except in a binder.  They now have an interface that allows them to enter a date for their region and it pulls up the historical document.  Certain cells are locked and others available for editing to allow our area superintendent to select a status for a worker including whether they were late, left early, on modified work.  It would be possible to complicate the database by storing a history of employee assignments by date and run a historical report but this is an unnecessary complication.

 

We run our office meeting minutes on a combination Word/Excel file that allows editing during the meeting.  I have many reports that smiply don't make sense without the ability to add specific notes and mark records for exclusion or exception for the time the report needs to be interpreted.  I have much greater formatting flexibility using Word when it comes to columns and alternate headers and page breaks than I do with a simple Access report.  There are occasions where an Access report can be built more quickly and the non-editable nature of the output offers an advantage, but I generally prefer the flexibility of using Excel and Word or even MS Project for reporting.

Ciao Jürgen Welz 

Edmonton, Alberta 

jwelz at hotmail.com


 

> From: max.wanadoo at gmail.com
> Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:17:41 +0100
> 
> Oops, did I say that.
> 
> Sorry, can be bmp, jpg or gif.
> 
> Max
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 7:46 AM
> 
> ???? I use jpgs and gifs w/o any problem.
> 
> William
> 
> From: "Max Wanadoo" <max.wanadoo at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Weird problem - ugly logo in reports
> 
> > Yes,
> > And also in Access you have THREE options on how to view the image.
> > Try each one in turn from the properties dialog.
> > It can be CLIP, STRETCH or ZOOM and each one will display differently.
> >
> > Also, open it in an editor, say MS Office Picture Manager and make sure 
> > you
> > have it exactly as you want it, sized etc.
> >
> > It needs to be a Bitmap
> >
> > Max


> > -----Original Message-----
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 9:32 PM
> > Subject: Re: [AccessD] Weird problem - ugly logo in reports
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi John,
> >
> > Since I can remember, Access has always converted all images to bitmap
> > first,
> > thereby bloating your database. I doubt this has changed in 2007.
> >
> > After that, Access places the bitmap into your report at the width and
> > height you specify,
> > often removing scanlines and pixelating in the process of making it fit.
> >
> > Long ago, we decided to export to either bookmarked dot or rtf templates
> > and they come out spectacularly.
> >
> > Michael R Mattys
> > Business Process Developers
> > www.mattysconsulting.com
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "John Clark" John.Clark at niagaracounty.com
 > Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 10:51 AM
> >
> >
> >> I've got something to run by y'all, which seems even too strange to
> >> ask...but, I've been looking into it for a bit now, and I'm not getting
> >> anywhere.
> >>
> >> I recently inherited a program, which is used by a fellow county, to keep
> >> track of something we do. The user department prints some reports, and 
> >> one
> >
> >> of the items they need to print is a certificate. What this does 
> >> currently
> >
> >> is open MS Word and print the cert, but it doesn't seem to be connected 
> >> in
> >
> >> any way and just basically opens the last cert in Word, and they retype
> >> the pertinent data, which is just about 4 things (i.e. Name, SSN, 
> >> Address,
> >
> >> and maybe one or two more things).
> >>
> >> OK, here's the thing...obviously...to me anyhow...it doesn't seem very
> >> "proper" to open up Word and have to type out anything...the data should
> >> just "happen" automagically. So, I wanted to setup the document to be a
> >> merge (I think). But, after gaining advice from many of you people, I
> >> don't think that is worthy of "plan A" either, because this seems to be
> >> version specific and I don't want to worry about that...believe me, in
> >> this place, people don't plan things out and it WILL be a problem in the
> >> future.
> >>
> >> So, I decided to go about this the same way I did w/my last program.
> >> Again, guided by several on this list, I recreated the form I needed, 
> >> w/in
> >
> >> Access, and just did it as an Access report. Everything brought together
> >> at run-time and all self contained.
> >>
> >> But, here is why I am asking for input...
> >>
> >> This form has our letterhead w/in it...just a logo and address, pretty
> >> much. No problem, I'll just add it to the report's design. But, it looks
> >> terrible! The same seal that I have in word, looks awful in Access. I
> >> tried many different versions of our county seal, and they all look
> >> terrible in an Access report.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have any insight on why exactly this is the case?
> >>
> >> BTW, it is 2007 that I am using for this.
> >>
> >> Thanks for any enlightenment!
> >>
> >> J Clark
 		 	   		  
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