Orna said:
I'm not looking for a free one.
I already know the dashboard builder, but i am looking for something that
looks better.
Thanks,
Orna.
When I need exceptionally good looking results I create a PDF file from
Access. See:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.databases.ms-access/msg/60b28d7abe426047
Note that what I do is useful in a different way than what Stephen
Lebans does with PDF files from Access. I generally create a PDF layout
containing the part of the output that remains static and put those
drawing commands in an Access table, then I use the information from the
database tables to create PDF drawing commands that overlay text, images
and vector graphics on top of the layout. It takes much more time to
create the layouts and to program the code to output the dynamic
information to the PDF file than to use Stephen's code, but for certain
reports the results are well worth the time spent. In fact, the results
are sometimes spectacular.
Part of my motivation for going beyond what Access reports are capable
of was to provide a means for putting down various kinds of notes into a
format that can be saved electronically. The PDF files I create are
usually much smaller than those created by just about any other program
to show the same information.
The PDF drawing commands give amazing control over text, such as
scaling, spacing or even following a curve. In fact, many of the
capabilities of PostScript become available. Suppose you want an analog
clock face as part of a dashboard. Once you have the drawing commands
for a clock face, you can scale it to any size you want on the output
PDF file. You would have a function that draws the clock hands for any
given time that you input, centered at a particular point and scaled
with the same scaling factor as the clock face. Because of the vector
graphics, the clock will look good for a whole continuum of scaling
factors. You could even put a very small clock face on every line and
use the data from the Date/Time field in the table to call the function
to draw the clock hands. I digress in my excitement, but consider this
technique if you need superior results.
James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)
