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My organization is using MS Word form to create a client questionnaire. Each Word doc form is saved as PDF file and stored in the Client's folder. I created a form in Access to capture and parse the questions but I cannot find a way to create and output a PDF file from Access. This requires me to repeat the entry process manually into the Word document. My IT department won't let me roll this out to other employees because of A) the double entry issue and B) they fear other users apparently will have to learn and use VBA to output individual records.
My question is: Can Access output individual records as a printable PDF format and cannot it be done without VBA?
A family of Microsoft relational database management systems designed for ease of use.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
I can answer the one question... You can set two Primary Keys by highlighting both rows and then pressing Primary Key.
David,
Me <--no degree in Computer Science.
I did have a great teacher who was a co-worker. I learned a lot for her but more from the great help I received in newsgroups as there were no forums at the time. If I were a beginner now I would start with Crystal's book which is free...
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html
You can also go here for free Data models...
http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/
https://www.access-diva.com/tips.html#bmDataModels
Access is simple enough for non-technical Users but once you start getting *serious* you do need to do some reading. And those hundreds of hours are over time with the help of the many Forums where free help is given including helping you create a data model. So if you ever decide it's worth the time, we are here to help.
I also noticed you said you created a Form and tried to add fields from another table which sounded like it was unrelated to the record source of the Form. Well, this can only be done when table is part of the record source. You can create a query which can include multiple tables from which you need fields and build your form though most would just use a subform in a typical one-to-many scenario.
Here is one of the few articles I read.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-future-of-Microsoft-Access-What-is-its-current-relevance
My organization had less than 60 users that Access couldn't handle. As I mentioned in previous posts, I worked at several companies whose IT departments gave me pained looks when I mentioned Access. I suspect you built Access as a front end but managing and serving the data with a different back end.
In any case, Microsoft support for Access is virtually non existent and doesn't help.
I tried, to no avail, subforms. I pull fields from one table with no problem. But when the form won't let me pull fields from a different table. Again, it is probably because I have the database on a networked drive.
I'm still not clear on the one to many relationship. Unable to select client info from another table to form the relationship. My work around was re-entering the clients name in the services database to keep track. Excel allows me to connect several workbooks without having to forcing me to re-enter the clients name.
The more I learn about Access, the less value I see using it. This is a moot point because, after two months or working with Access, my supervisor pulled me off it and pointed me to Excel. She said I was wasting my time with Access. No one uses it, or to be more fair, no one has several months of payroll time to learn how to use it.
Hmm and let me just add to what Scott said...
If the database was prone to crashing and corruption then I would look to the design of the database. I have databases with 100's of Users that have been up and running since Access 97 (obviously upgraded over time) with no issues. And while I prefer to put the Backend on an SQL Server Access itself can handle it. I would not blame the saw because the cut wood is crooked.
That said, Access, unlike Excel, has a learning curve the most important being normalization and the close second is building a proper data model. If those older databases were built without knowledge of at least those two items they are going to have issues but not Access' fault.
In all fairness, Scott, a well designed, professionally built Access Relational Database application can support many, many users--100 or more in ideal cases such as those you created.
When someone reports that they haven't been able to support more than a handful of people, it probably reflects more on the developer's limitations than the tool.