audio field in Access

[Guest]

Is it possible to create an audio field in Access 2003?
In the field types drop down, there appears to be no facility for this.
Ideally I would like to have a field type audio so that when entering data
on a form, when I get to the audio field, I could record a message in that
field.
Any help would be appreciated

 

[Scott McDaniel]

Is it possible to create an audio field in Access 2003?
In the field types drop down, there appears to be no facility for this.
Ideally I would like to have a field type audio so that when entering data
on a form, when I get to the audio field, I could record a message in that
field.

No, you can't create new field types in Access. You could possibly store your audio data in an OLE Object field, but
generally this is not a good idea, as it can cause bloat and corruption. In most cases, if you need to store this type
of info, you'd store the file in a standard folder, then store the full path to that file. In your project, you'd then
use Shell or a Hyperlink to play/load that file. Assuming the computer has a program associated with the file extension
(i.e. if you save it as a .wmv file, then the machine would need to have a program associated with that extension) then
either Shell or a hyperlink should load the application and play the file. I'm sure there are also ActiveX control that
would allow you to record/play audio data directly in your Project (still storing them externally, of course) but I
don't know of a examples of this. If you're interested in something like this, search for "ms access play audio" or
something, and see what comes up. Note that if you DO use a 3rd party ActiveX control, make sure the developer has
verified that is works in the Access environment; not all ActiveX controls do, and if you purchase one that is not
verified then often the developer will not provide support.

Any help would be appreciated

Scott McDaniel
scott@takemeout_infotrakker.com
www.infotrakker.com

 

[Pete]

You can create a function to use the windows sound recorder and then just
save the file location in the data file. I played with this for my police
scanner but recorder was to slow to starting to capture the calls, as a note
attachment it would be fine. See;
ACC2000: How to Record and Play Sounds from Microsoft Access
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/210067/en-us

Pete

 

[Guest]

Pete
Many thanks I shall give that a go
Cheers

You can create a function to use the windows sound recorder and then just
save the file location in the data file. I played with this for my police
scanner but recorder was to slow to starting to capture the calls, as a note
attachment it would be fine. See;
ACC2000: How to Record and Play Sounds from Microsoft Access
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/210067/en-us

Pete

 

[Guest]

Scott
Many thanks for that
Cheers

No, you can't create new field types in Access. You could possibly store your audio data in an OLE Object field, but
generally this is not a good idea, as it can cause bloat and corruption. In most cases, if you need to store this type
of info, you'd store the file in a standard folder, then store the full path to that file. In your project, you'd then
use Shell or a Hyperlink to play/load that file. Assuming the computer has a program associated with the file extension
(i.e. if you save it as a .wmv file, then the machine would need to have a program associated with that extension) then
either Shell or a hyperlink should load the application and play the file. I'm sure there are also ActiveX control that
would allow you to record/play audio data directly in your Project (still storing them externally, of course) but I
don't know of a examples of this. If you're interested in something like this, search for "ms access play audio" or
something, and see what comes up. Note that if you DO use a 3rd party ActiveX control, make sure the developer has
verified that is works in the Access environment; not all ActiveX controls do, and if you purchase one that is not
verified then often the developer will not provide support.


Scott McDaniel
scott@takemeout_infotrakker.com
www.infotrakker.com