Output individual records as PDF files

Thanks for the info but I realize that Access may not work for my purposes. The main database/survey I'm attempting to build requires 86 questions that won't fit into a single form. I did create sub-forms by breaking down the survey into 9 sections / tabs. While the sub forms/tabs feed the Table, the Query from the table and the Report generated from that is too large and cannot be formatted for PDF output. And it also creates duplicate data rendering it useless. (I tried several times from scratch and keep getting the duplicates so, obviously I need VAB code to prevent this but I haven't the faintest idea even how to begin - let alone the colossal waste of time experimenting via trial and error. And while I am venting, a software program should not force it's user to create multiple re-iterations to achieve a desired outcome. One may as well use Visual Basic Studio to build from the ground up instead of Access. 

Unfortunately, my schedule is far too demanding to learn and apply VBA, a 28 year old language that is well on its way of becoming obsolete. Plus, I need a database that allows multiple users in a web environment. Access is really for single users on dedicated machines. It is not a reliable solution in a shared environment.  Investing my time into a decades old JET platform with limited storage capacity with an end of life Web apps that occurred last year is not a good use of my time. 

By the way, in less than two hours, I was able to build exactly what I wanted on a DOM drag and drop platform and was able to export a PDF and a Onenote file from the DOM database. It's a very cool system that allows customization via Javascript.  Check out Kintone. It is a modern platform light years ahead of Access. 

I am optimistic that my organization will adopt this platform soon. 

DC

I just really want to print from a record to a PDF file and I enter the record.............

In Access the way to do that is not to print the form, but to output a report to a PDF file.  The report can, as in the demo to which I referred you, be output restricted to the form's current record.  First you need to design the report, but that's a simple task, and the report wizard can be used if you wish.  The report should be based on a query which references whatever is the primary key which identifies each records as a parameter.  In my demo it's the invoice number.

The code in my demo is mostly concerned with building the path to the folder where the PDF file is to be saved, and the name of the file, but if you are saving the file to an existing client's folder, then the code can be quite simple.  Let's assume for simplicity that you have a folder on the system named F:\Clients\ with a subfolder for each client with a distinct ClientName value as the name of each subfolder, and that the primary key identifying each record is named ClientID, and the table includes a column (field) named ClientName whose values are exactly the same as the subfolder names.  The code in the Click event procedure of a button on the form would be like this:

    Const REPORT_NAME = "rptClientQuestionnaire"

    Const PARENT_FOLDER = "F:\Clients"

    Dim strPath As String

    strPath = PARENT_FOLDER & Me.ClientName & "" & Me.ClientName & "  Questionnaire.PDF"

    ' ensure current record is saved

    Me.Dirty = False

    ' output report to a PDF file in client's folder

    DoCmd.OutputTo acOutputReport, REPORT_NAME, acFormatPDF, strPath, True

As well as saving the PDF file this code will also open it, which acts as confirmation to the user.

The query used as the report's RecordSource property would be like this:

PARAMETERS Forms!frmQuestionnaire!ClientID LONG;

SELECT *

FROM ClientQuestionnaires

WHERE ClientID = Forms!frmQuestionnaire!ClientID

where ClientQuestionnaires is the name of the table to which the form named frmQuestionnaire is bound.

Once you've set the form and report up as described above, all an employee has to do to save the current record as a PDF file is click the button.  They have no need to be aware of any of the code which does the work behind the scenes.

If you are unfamiliar with entering code into a form's, report's, report section's  or control's event procedures, this is how it's done in form or report design view:

1.  Select the form, report, section or control as appropriate and open its properties sheet if it's not already open.

2.  Select the relevant event property in the Event tab, and select the 'build' button (the one on the right with 3 dots).

3.  Select Code Builder in the dialogue and click OK.  This step won't be necessary if you've set up Access to use event procedures by default.

4.  The VBA editor window will open at the event procedure with the first and last lines already in place.  Enter or paste in the code as new line(s) between these.

Thanks, Doug,

I just really want to print from a record to a PDF file and I enter the record but I'll look at workflow and see if that is a good investment of my time. 

DC