In this post I will be discussing the advantages to using MS Word as a reporting tool for MS Access.
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Word Automation allows us to manipulate Microsoft Word from within Microsoft Access. It means we can open up the Word Application and create or edit documents, add or retrieve text, add pictures and style documents (and much more).
Word has traditionally been used as an extra report option in MS Access. You know how to create reports in MS Access, but when created, these reports can’t be changed (or shouldn’t be) by anyone other than the developer. This can be a source of frustration for both the developers and the end users.
Developers don’t tend to want to be interrupted to change the font size of a particular word or to prettify a report but the look and feel of certain reports can be absolutely vital to end users and if they say Times New Roman with a Mauve background, that is what they want! Clients also tend to change their mind and don’t always understand how much effort can go into report styling.
An underused but relatively simple solution is to create a Word based report that will reflect data sent from MS Access. Certain fields within the MS Word document will be updateable whilst the remainder of the document will be open for editing by the client. This means that the client will be able to make the modifications that he/she wants without having to contact the developer.
Another advantage of Word automation is that Word documents have many more options for styling than MS Access reports. You can make genuinely attractive reports in Word that will wow clients and maybe help improve your sales with minimal effort…
