Linking .bmp to a database field

[Guest]

Help! For years I have been scanning signatures to a file and linking them
to a field via the insert object function. In the past the table field would
show the words 'bitmap image' and the signature would print on a document.
Recently, I have attempted to link another signature and have been unable to
do so. I have used the same process I've been using for years but no luck.
Instead of getting 'bitmap image' in the destination field, I get 'package'.
It seems that the file is wrapped with some additional information (the
package) and is not being linked as the .bmp file alone. The bitmap will not
print on a document. I have been trying for five hours to accomplish a two
minute task and I am at wits end. I even bought a second scanner to see if
the problem was a problem with the Canon software with the first scanner. It
wasn't. Am I facing a problem with XP or maybe a corruption in Access 2000?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Help! For years I have been scanning signatures to a file and
linking them to a field via the insert object function. In the
past the table field would show the words 'bitmap image' and the
signature would print on a document. Recently, I have attempted
to link another signature and have been unable to do so. I have
used the same process I've been using for years but no luck.
Instead of getting 'bitmap image' in the destination field, I get
'package'. It seems that the file is wrapped with some additional
information (the package) and is not being linked as the .bmp file
alone. The bitmap will not print on a document. I have been
trying for five hours to accomplish a two minute task and I am at
wits end. I even bought a second scanner to see if the problem
was a problem with the Canon software with the first scanner. It
wasn't. Am I facing a problem with XP or maybe a corruption in
Access 2000? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have you recently installed any new graphics software? Upgraded
WinXP? Those are the only things I could think.

Also, how are you getting the information into the field? If you're
using paste, you probably want to switch to Paste Special, since
that gives you options for what format you're pasting from the
clipboard.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your help. Yesterday a neighbor and friend was able to
accomplish the task. He captured the .bmp into Adobe Photoshop using the
photoshop import function. By doing so, he apparently bypassed the scanner
software and left me with the .bmp file only, not a package. I was then able
to link the file as I had in the past without any problems. I guess that
scanners and their associated software have become a little too sophisticated
to accomplish a simple task.

Thanks again for you time and help with this matter.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Yesterday a neighbor and friend was able to
accomplish the task. He captured the .bmp into Adobe Photoshop
using the photoshop import function. By doing so, he apparently
bypassed the scanner software and left me with the .bmp file only,
not a package. I was then able to link the file as I had in the
past without any problems. I guess that scanners and their
associated software have become a little too sophisticated to
accomplish a simple task.

It's very annoying what's happened with scanners in the last few
years. HP engineers admitted to a client of mine that they aren't
building the consumer-level scanners optimized to scan graphics any
more because they believe people are no longer scanning photos since
they all have digital cameras, so the design of the scanners is
optimized for scanning text for OCR. This is ludicrous, of course,
since there are decades of photos that haven't been scanned yet (my
family just did a huge scanning project to honor my parents' 50th
wedding anniversary, and everyone who did the scanning had a digital
camera, too, but the pictures were taken before digital cameras
existed; d'Oh!).

And the software is *terrible*. Some of it won't allow you to retain
default settings. Others won't run in certain circumstances. And try
to find a large-format scanner -- it's *very* difficult.

So, I feel your pain.

I would try to see if there's any place where you can set some
options in the scanning software, though, and check to see if it
saves those options and re-uses them each time. I'd think you'd get
a choice of output format each time you scanned.

Another thing to do would be to initiate the scan from a graphics
program (a TWAIN-compliant File menu should have a choice for
acquiring images from a scanner). I know that some scanner software
provides a different UI when initiating the scan from a program than
you get when you launch the software standalone.