[AccessD] [dba-OT] Output report to word

[Salakhetdinov Shamil]

 Hi Rocky --

You can try to use MS ReportViewer Control (free):  it may sound not easy but it would be a kind of "universal" for MS Windows platform reporting solution.
MS ReportViewer Control has built-in features of exporting to MS Word (docx), PDF and MS Excel (xlsx) formats.
MS ReportViewer Control reports can be used in many kinds of MS Windows managed (.NET Framework-based) applications - desktop and web, as well as in web services and in MS SQL Reporting Services.

Here is a link to my test ASP.NET web app with MS Access backend and a few sample reports  http://tinyurl.com/j2s9gkf
These reports were developed in our Northwind.NET project we have had here (in Accessd -> dba-VB) a few years ago.
The link I'm posting here -  http://tinyurl.com/j2s9gkf   - goes directly to the "Alphabetical List of Products" sample report - to get to the others follow [Home] link in the sample report page left-top corner.
You can try exporting sample reports to MS Word from your web browser to see how well all the reports' layouts are preserved during export.
I tested with Google Chrome, MS IE, MS Edge, FireFox - all worked OK.
BTW actual MS Word export is performed into .docx AKA OpenXML format so exported documents, I suppose, should be also viewable on Linux (not tested).
I have tested sample reports on a couple of MS Windows smart-phones - old Lumia 800 and modern Lumia 950 - all reports are displayed properly.

Please note that MS ReportViewer Control is not an ActiveX control so it can't be placed on MS Access forms directly in design mode.
The trick could be to place a WebBrowser control on an MS Access form and to supply it with the link to the web page with MS ReportViewer Control's report . It will work - you can try the above link with a Web Browser control placed within MS Access form. 
But exporting to MS Word directly from this "tricky environment" by using built-in MS ReportViewer control export feature/button will not work. I'm currently looking for a solution of this issue but I have no clear idea when it would be solved if it could be solved at all.

The reports for MS ReportViewer Control can be designed using Visual Studio (Community Edition) or Report Builder for MS SQL Server

Thank you.

-- Shamil

>Saturday, March 12, 2016 11:04 PM +03:00 from "Rocky Smolin" <rockysmolin at bchacc.com>:
>
>Yes.  That's the mail merge approach - make a .dot document with the
>bookmarks and populate from an Access BE using automation.
>
>I've done it.  It's a PITA.  So just looking for an easy way out.
>
>r
> 
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