Access 2007 Email Template Help

[Gerry]

Can someone direct me to a good resource for learning using the email form
from Access 2007. I have tried it but find that it formats the form itself
and I can't figure out how to edit the form.
Thanks
Gerry

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Hi Gerry,

Here are two resources for you:

Microsoft® Access 2007 Collect Data Through Emails
http://www.access-freak.com/tutorials.html#Tutorial09

and

E-mail Data Collection with Outlook 2007 and Access 2007
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/webcasts/HA102579821033.aspx
(See third download, under "Video tips")


I'm still using Access 2003 myself; I haven't worked with this feature in
A2007, but I hope these links are useful to you.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
__________________________________________

 

[Gerry]

Thanks Tom,
From what I read, there are restrictions dependent on what the other end of
the email is using. Also, I find that I am restricted with how the email form
is layed out.
I would like to send something in grid format that will enable the input to
include qty estimates by product and month.
Would there be a better way of doing this? Either VB code or some other
avenue?

Thanks
Gerry

 

[Mark Andrews]

I haven't used Access 2007 much (since most people don't use it yet), but I
just released a product to help with HTML email templates.

On the producing the email end, it can use an HTML template and substitute
variables at runtime, it can also add attachments at runtime
and substitute entire files into the body of the email at runtime. So if
you are using HTML format you can have a token ##FileBody1## that will
read a file at runtime (example: c:\myfiles\file1.html) and merge it into
the email body. You can create the HTML files used for this substituting by
either exporting a
report to HTML format or by any other means such as just some logic that
builds an HTM file.

If you need the receiver of the email needs to add some data and get it back
to you one approach is to use the web and links in the email so the user
would use a website for all data entry. Possibly you could dig into how
they are contructing the emails in Access 2007 and add whatever is needed so
that it works with this method, so that the receiver of the email can add
data to an html form and hit reply??? When I get a chance I'll look into
what Access2007 is doing (I didn't even know about htis feature).

Might help,
Mark
RPT Software
http://www.rptsoftware.com

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Hi Gerry,

From what I read, there are restrictions dependent on what the other end of
the email is using.

Correct. If you want to use an InfoPath form, then all of your reciepients
must have InfoPath installed. An advantage to using an InfoPath form is that
you can build validation into the text boxes, to help guide folks into
entering only valid data. For example, if you have a Yes/No field, validation
can be implemented to only accept a Yes/No type of response.

Without having InfoPath forms available, you must use HTML, which does not
offer any type of validation. To me, that's a recipe for "Garbage In -
Garbage Out". In other words, you might end up having to spend time futzing
around with importing returned survey results, if the user has entered data
that cannot be appended to a given field.

I would like to send something in grid format that will enable the input to
include qty estimates by product and month.

I really have very little experience using Access 2007, and none at all
using this new feature. However, that said, you can likely design this using
an InfoPath form (if all reciepients have InfoPath installed). You *might*
(?) be able to create an HTML form, using the appropriate tags to create a
table. I just don't know for sure.

Would there be a better way of doing this? Either VB code or some other
avenue?

Have you considered SurveyMonkey.com (http://www.SurveyMonkey.com)?
I think there are other competitors as well.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
__________________________________________