Snapshot Viewer vs. Word

[ant1983]

Hi...

I have a button that, once clicked, opens a report in an email attachement
(I created this through the standard wizard)

Anyway - once clicked you get prompted for the format you want to email in.
Two of these choices are (a) Snapshot Viewer and (b) MS Word...

Snapshot viewer works really well but the problem is that my clients are
complaining that they cannot open the attachement. (I realize that it is
jsut a simple set-up that they have to run which will only take a minute or
two but the reality is that i cannot explain this to all clients hence this
would then prob not be the best solution.

The other solution is to then use MS Word. Problem with this is that my
report doesnt look all that great when i choose 'Word' - It loses the lines
and borders and shading and stuff. It also loses the company logo that im
using for the header.

Why is this and how can i resolve?

Thanks!

 

[Allen Browne]

When you choose Word as the export format, Access exports RTF (Rich Text
Format.) As you found, this does lose all the graphical components.

You can't change that. There are workarounds for some issued, e.g. you can
use a label or text box full of underscore characters to simulate a line.
Similarly, you can use a text box with WingDings characters to simulate a
text box. Details of that here:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-52.html
But after all that is done, you still can't get the company logo in an RTF.

People can download the snapshot viewer as a free add-in from Microsoft. For
Access 2007, send them to:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928357/
or for previous versions:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/175274

If you are using Access 2007, you can create PDFs if you get this download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...11-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en
For previous versions, you can use Stephen Lebans' utility to create PDFs:
http://www.lebans.com/reporttopdf.htm

 

[Rick Brandt]

Hi...

I have a button that, once clicked, opens a report in an email
attachement (I created this through the standard wizard)

Anyway - once clicked you get prompted for the format you want to
email in. Two of these choices are (a) Snapshot Viewer and (b) MS
Word...

Snapshot viewer works really well but the problem is that my clients
are complaining that they cannot open the attachement. (I realize
that it is jsut a simple set-up that they have to run which will only
take a minute or two but the reality is that i cannot explain this to
all clients hence this would then prob not be the best solution.

The other solution is to then use MS Word. Problem with this is that
my report doesnt look all that great when i choose 'Word' - It loses
the lines and borders and shading and stuff. It also loses the
company logo that im using for the header.

Why is this and how can i resolve?

You cannot. The RTF (or Word) format has never supported graphic output and has
the even bigger problem of sometimes truncating some of your data.

At the bottom of all of your Emails include a link to the Microsoft page for
installing the Snapshot Viewer with a brief explanation. Either that or use a
PDF writer so you can send them a PDF file instead.