Create Document For Specific Record

[Gwill1983]

Hi all,

I am very new to Access so still finding my feet with it all. I have created my database using the asset list template and amending this to fit my needs.
What I am looking to do is have the option to create some sort of customer agreement form out of Access when an Asset needs to move location.

For instance,

If asset A was in my warehouse and I needed to move it to Jon Smith then I would like a button to create an agreement form using the Asset information and Jon Smiths information in a pre-determined template to be signed and then attached to the asset in the table.

Hopefully this makes sense.

I am just looking to have it confirmed that this is something that is possible in Access so that I can keep trying. If anybody has a good tutorial link to direct me to for this then that would be awesome.

Thanks for any help you can give me

 

[Joe4]

Typically, you would not create an actual document and save it to Access.
What you would do is create a Report, that uses your data to populate it at "run-time" (which you can print).
So you never need to save the actual document, just the Report template and the data that populates it.

If you Google search "creating a Report in Microsoft Access", there should be lots of articles/tutorials out there to show you how to do this.

 

[Gwill1983]

Typically, you would not create an actual document and save it to Access.
What you would do is create a Report, that uses your data to populate it at "run-time" (which you can print).
So you never need to save the actual document, just the Report template and the data that populates it.

If you Google search "creating a Report in Microsoft Access", there should be lots of articles/tutorials out there to show you how to do this.

Thanks alot. Much appreciated. I have read lots (and lots) of articles about reports but wasnt sure if that was the way forward.

 

[Joe4]

You are welcome.

Yes, the thinking is if you can easily re-generate the document whenever you need it, there is no need to store a copy of it.
It saves a lot of room that way (and you really cannot store outside documents within Access anway - you would need to save it off to a folder somewhere).

If your data *might change* and it is important to know what it looked like on a certain day, you want to to store a date stamped copy of the data on that day, so you can easily reference what it looked like on that day.

 

[Micron]

you really cannot store outside documents within Access anway

Not sure I'd agree with that considering there is such a thing as an attachment field.

As for recreating an unsigned document, I'd agree - use a report that you populate from tables/queries.
If you get back a signed document (assuming it is an actual signature) that may be something you'd want to "store" in the db - except that you ought to store the file path to the document, not the document itself, as noted. To get the file path into the table, research msoFileDialogFilePicker as it's the best option IMO.

 

[Joe4]

Not sure I'd agree with that considering there is such a thing as an attachment field.

Thanks for the correction. Quite honestly, I have never used it.
Seeing as how Access has a 2 GB maximum size on the database, I don't think that would be a wise use of space (storing it off separately to a folder with a link to it like Micron suggested would be better).

Here is more information about attachments in Access: Attachment object (Access)