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Garry Robinson
writes for a number of popular computer magazines, is now a book author and
has worked on 100+ Access databases. He is based in Sydney, Australia
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Welcome To Tips-FX - Edition
7See all newsletters
Tips-FX is a email newsletter that provides free
tips, help and information for skilled Microsoft
Access users and related software disciplines.
In this edition
A GREAT VB DEBUGGING TIP
EMAILING USING ACCESS AND WORD
SAVE YOUR REPORTS AND MAPS WITH ADOBE ACROBAT
GETTING SUPPORT DETAILS INTO YOUR ACCESS APPLICATION
ACCESS SECURITY - "THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE"
MULTI-LINGUAL WEB SITES
This month we are featuring a good way to email a group
plus a very sensible to save and manage your documents and
reports. We also have the usual Good Reading section
plus details on source code that you can purchase so that
"Ed" can find ways to make a return on the investment in time
spent on the web sites and this newsletter. Also you will
find a really handy debugging tip for VB
--- A GREAT VB DEBUGGING TIP ---
When you are debugging code in Visual Basic (in any environment),
you will see a little yellow arrow on the left hand side showing
the line of code that has the current focus. Well you can
actually grab that yellow arrow with your mouse and move it to
another line. This tricky tip will allow you to go back to a
previous line and run it again.
Thanks to Eddie Jestin ( the Irishman with the cool sunglasses )
who first showed me this tip when I was working on graphs
at http://www.valuad.com/
----------------------------------------
EMAILING USING ACCESS AND WORD
Nirmala Sekhar is a software consultant working from
Singapore. Her company - Saicom Systems, publishes a monthly
email newsletter on Access. This article on emailing a
group proved so useful that "Ed" decided to use it for this
months mailout. If you want to join up for the Saicom ezine
which has now reached edition 13 of great Access tips then
--> http://www.saicomsystems.com/tip.asp
If you want to read these instructions with pictures
http://www.vb123.com/toolshed/99/emailplus.htm
Step 1:
Set up a table in Access with at least two columns : Name of
the person and their email address. e.g. Let us use a table
with two columns - Client_Name and email_address.
Step 2:
Select the table (or open it) and Click on the following
menu bar options:
Tools -> Office Links -> Merge it with Word
Word then takes over the processing using its mail-merge
feature.
Step 3:
Create a Word document with placeholders where the data from
Access will be placed. For example:
Dear <<Client_Name>>,
Let me introduce you to our new product ......
Sincerely,
Nirmala Sekhar
You can use the Insert Merge Field from the Mail-merge toolbar
to select and place the field (instead of typing it yourself).
Step 4:
Once the document is ready, click on the Merge button.
In the dialog box, select Electronic Mail as your option.
Step 5:
Now you must inform Word where to look for the email
addresses of your recipients. Select Setup from the
dialog box above and choose the field in your table
that contains the email addresses. Specify the subject line
for your emails.
Step 6:
You can, optionally, select the records by specifying
the record number range or query options.
When you click on the OK button, Word will create one email
message for each record in the table and place it in the Outbox.
Depending on your email client configuration, they may be
sent out automatically; so for test messages make sure your
table has dummy email addresses.
Notes:
This will work with most email clients. You can use the
same method for sending personalised faxes as well.
However, you must have a MAPI compatible electronic mail
(or fax) program.
Author Bio:
Nirmala Sekhar is a software consultant working from
Singapore. You read all the previous issues of the
Access Pearls ezine at
http://www.saicomsystems.com/index.asp?id=pasttips
Ph (65) 897 1030
nirmala@saicomsystems.com
----------------------------------------
SAVE YOUR REPORTS WITH ADOBE ACROBAT
by Scott McManus
This review discusses the mining / spatial analysis world that
I work in but equally will apply to any computing environment where
report distribution and management is important.
One of the problems we encounter in our mining work is the
collection of all entities of a report into one file format
that is readily distributable and compact.
In our situation we use the following software
· Gemcom (Mining software for 3d representation of data)
· Ermapper (Image analysis tools for Landsat and Geophysics)
· MapInfo (Low end mapping and GIS tool)
· Microsoft Word (for documents)
· Excel (for spread sheets and financial models)
· Access (For storage of data in relation databases)
· Corel Draw (for stylised diagrams and drawings)
A report is usually a compilation of data, diagrams, maps and
images from all of the above. When sending the report electronically
we have endeavoured to compile all of them into one format. We
have tried to use word, and generally we output from graphical
programs as wmf into Corel draw, do alterations and then import
into word. (We have found some of the wmf files from the mapping
products do not readily import into word).
This causes our drafting department a considerable amount of
extra work and the word files become quiet large.
Another problem is that if someone has Office 95 then to
convert Office 97 to 95 often means a 2 megabyte file becomes
20 megabytes.
Adobe has the Acrobat product that many of us have seen on
the Internet. Many sites (especially government ones) scan
forms and have them available for download. The acrobat reader
is free from the Adobe site --> www.adobe.com
Apart from scanning, if you install Acrobat it provides a
"print to pdf " function for "Every" package that is able
to access a windows printer. This means we can now print
an exact copy of our map diagram direct form its native format
to a pdf file. Resolution, page size and orientation can also be set.
Then one can insert the map or figure pdf into the text part of
the report. The result is a compact file with all of the maps,
figures and appendixes in the right place in a file format
that no one can alter.
Author Bio:
Scott McManus has been involved in the IT world from the days
of the VIC 20. He has a degree in Geology and has spent most
of the last 10 years-making computers work in the mining and
exploration environment. Scott currently works from Malaysia
where he works for a company called Fikiran Perkasa Sdn Bhd.
The company presently contracts to mining companies in Malaysia
and Thailand, small SOHO businesses as well as building web
sites and providing technical support on Web Hosting.
Scott also likes to Visual Basic (and eat Chilli Potatoes "Ed")
He can be contacted on scott@skandus.com
----------------------------------------
GETTING SUPPORT DETAILS INTO YOUR ACCESS APPLICATION
At the bottom of the "Home" form on the Access systems that
I write, I always add a hyperlink to www.gr-fx.com. This means
that people cam easily find my web site without having to look for
a business card. Instructions follow for adding an email address
to an Access form in design view
Menu Insert -> Hyperlink
and add
mailto: access@gr-fx.com
in the hyperlink text box.
----------------------------------------
ACCESS SECURITY
This paper by Andy Baron, Chris Bell, Mary Chipman, and
Paul Litwin contains just about everything you need
to know about securing your application and keeping buddy
young hackers away from confidential data. Thanks to
David Hare-Scott from the Sydney Access user group
who pointed out this updated file to me.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/downloads/dp2719.asp
----------------------------------------
MULTI-LINGUAL WEB SITES
Interested in a tool that will translate web pages automatically
from English into other languages. Then look at the code at
http://www.gr-fx.com/#translate
This tool is supported by the GO network and will translate the
site on the fly. A couple of people with skills in languages
other than VB and the pigeon English that I speak have suggested
that www.gr-fx.com doesn't translate so well. Anyone who can
translate who could offer an opinion, try it out and give me a
yell. Well setup it could be a huge boost to a multilingual site.
http://translator.go.com/?input_type=websnip
http://babelfish.altavista.com/cgi-bin/translate?
----------------------------------------
GOOD READING AND USEFUL SITES
Word Programming Guru - Mail Merge Forms etc
http://homepage.swissonline.net/cindymeister/
ASP Today Is A Really Well Organised Active Server Pages site
Here are a few articles
Serving up Ads with AdServer
http://www.asptoday.com/articles/19991013.htm
Build recordsets without a database using ADO
http://www.asptoday.com/articles/19990423.htm
Using Active Server Pages to Build Microsoft Word Documents
http://www.asptoday.com/articles/19990825.htm
Ever have trouble with Access forms that crash the application.
http://www.vb123.com/toolshed/99/formbugs.htm
Want to start up your own email newsletter
http://list-tips.com/articles/list-management/
Export/email Access graphs (and generate a jpeg file)
http://www.mvps.org/access/general/gen0032.htm
Well the University of North Carolina links to our site for ODBC
advice, so here is a link to their www programming pages
plus a useful overview of HTML.
http://www.cs.unc.edu/Courses/wwwp-s98/
Great free greeting cards site with no hassles.
http://www.bluemountain.com/
Lots and lots of search engines in the one spot
http://www.freeality.com/
LAST EDITION
http://www.vb123.com/toolshed/news/issue6.htm
PREVIOUS GOOD READING LINKS
http://www.vb123.com/toolshed/news/read99.htm
Garry Robinson - Software Consultant
Click on this button
to read the previous edition of Tips-FX Published 1999-10