Standardized Forms

[ElijahTurner]

Is there a way to use pre-made/standardized forms in access? For example, I'm
in the army and we have a lot of processing forms that are standardized (i.e.
DA forms, and DoD forms) and it would be convenient if you could scan in one
of those forms, make it fill able and use the tables information to fill it.
Is this possible? If not through access are there any software’s that could
do this? Thank you for the help.

 

[Stefan Hoffmann]

hi Elijah,

Is there a way to use pre-made/standardized forms in access? For example, I'm
in the army and we have a lot of processing forms that are standardized (i.e.
DA forms, and DoD forms) and it would be convenient if you could scan in one
of those forms, make it fill able and use the tables information to fill it.
Is this possible? If not through access are there any software’s that could
do this? Thank you for the help.

Yes, you can do it. Use the scanned form as background image and place
the necessary TextBoxes onto it.

mfG
--> stefan <--

 

[John W. Vinson]

Is there a way to use pre-made/standardized forms in access? For example, I'm
in the army and we have a lot of processing forms that are standardized (i.e.
DA forms, and DoD forms) and it would be convenient if you could scan in one
of those forms, make it fill able and use the tables information to fill it.
Is this possible? If not through access are there any software’s that could
do this? Thank you for the help.

In order to have something that you can print out and hand or mail to someone,
you will need to create Access Reports. There's no way for Access, by itself,
to recognize the lines and labels on a scanned image; what you will need to do
is to base the report on a query retrieving the necessary information, use the
image as the background for a Report in report design, and put textboxes onto
the report lined up with the proper positions on the image. Tedious but
doable!

 

[Mark Andrews]

I just did a database with lots of these forms for an army guy. I ended up
making routines to import and
export the excel documents (using Excel automation) and certain reports
were also created to
mimic the look/feel of the original excel documents. I ended up doing it
the regular way of
drawing boxes and placing fields (very boring). Hire someone to do it just
so you don't go insane from the boredom.

So options are (in my opinion):
- reports that mimic look/feel of original
- excel automation to populate a blank excel form
- both report and excel options

If it's a form based on Microsoft Word you could do a word merge approach.

Let me know which ones you are trying to do (possibly a slight chance I did
them already).
I was working with a database for discrepancy and injury related forms.

HTH,
Mark Andrews
RPT Software
http://www.rptsoftware.com

 

[John W. Vinson]

Is there a way to use pre-made/standardized forms in access? For example, I'm
in the army and we have a lot of processing forms that are standardized (i.e.
DA forms, and DoD forms) and it would be convenient if you could scan in one
of those forms, make it fill able and use the tables information to fill it.
Is this possible? If not through access are there any software’s that could
do this? Thank you for the help.

One point to bear in mind: the ultimate goal is that the recipient get the
*INFORMATION* on the form, in a way that is convenient to read and use.

Sometimes this means precisely matching some paper form devised in 1971 by a
bored bureaucrat. But that might not be the only option.

In a rational world, the information would be transmitted electronically from
your database into the recipient's database, without the requirement of
printing it to paper and then laboriously retyping it... but I fear we're not
yet in a rational world. The closest we're likely to get is that an
approximation of the official form would be acceptable.