[AccessD] Relative reference to Word document?

Charlotte Foust charlotte.foust at gmail.com
Mon Aug 26 12:53:04 CDT 2013


If you need a Word document, then by all means use Word.  I've built Notice
of Action letters (health insurance language) in Access because I didn't
want to have the hassle of integrating a Word document into something that
required boiler plate interspersed with variable detail information and
variable lookup information.  It was extremely complex and resulted in 2
back to back letters to each recipient, one in English and then one in
Spanish.  The number of total pages depended on the number of detail items,
the county of service, the particular medical benefits plan involved, and
the specific reasons for denial or payment by line item.  The result was
usually about 8 pages of mixed boiler plate and individual and customized
data.  We ran them in batches of 250 - 500 at a time printed to PDF.  We
also had to be able to go back and enter a claim number and reprint  any of
the letters on demand.

I built it in Access because I could nest subreports, group several times
on a single value (i.e., language), and handle the variables in Access
easier than I could in Word.  I had subreports nested 4 deep.  Each
subreport could grow and shrink, as could the groups they were in.  They
weren't required to be perfect Word documents, so the wrapping was largely
controlled by the ffixed width of the control it appeared in.  No automatic
hyphens, etc., but acceptable.

Access may well be the hard way for what you're doing, but it isn't because
the report generator is clunky, it's because it is extremely powerful.  As
with dot net, once you learn the essentials and the scope of possibilities,
everything looks like an Access report. ;-}

Charlotte


On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 5:59 PM, Tina Norris Fields <
tinanfields at torchlake.com> wrote:

> Hi Charlotte,
>
> Maybe I was doing the wrong things.  Both you and Susan have supported the
> concept of making this into an embedded Access report.
>
> My experience was that the contents of the merge fields varied in size and
> the text of my "letter" didn't wrap well, so I didn't get the kind of
> paragraph spacing and formatting that I get with Word.  When I found I
> could not add postal bar codes to my Access labels, but it was a snap with
> Word, I took these experiences together and said "forget it."  Ever since,
> I have set up the data source in Access and the form letters and labels in
> Word.
>
> I'm willing to learn.
>
> Best,
>
> TNF
>
> Tina Norris Fields
> tinanfields-at-torchlake-dot-**com
> 231-322-2787
>
> On 8/25/2013 4:19 PM, Charlotte Foust wrote:
>
>> I've built incredibly complex reports in Access and never found it
>> "clunky".  I would be interested to know what "clunky" behaviors you have
>> had problems with.
>>
>> Charlotte
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 10:24 AM, Tina Norris Fields <
>> tinanfields at torchlake.com> wrote:
>>
>>  Susan - :-)
>>>
>>> For number one - I did, and it didn't work - they still moved it - in
>>> fact, they didn't even realize that they were moving it.  "Hey, I'm just
>>> editing it to bring it up-to-date, and I'll keep it here where I can
>>> easily
>>> find it again next year.  I'm not moving it, I'm just updating it!"
>>>
>>> For number two - yeah, except that the Access report writer is so clunky
>>> -
>>> still, you may be right.  I'll noodle on that one for a while.  The
>>> executive director will want to update it periodically, which will
>>> require
>>> my assistance, but I can live with that.
>>>
>>>
>>> TNF
>>>
>>>
>>>
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