Auto fill word document from database

[kaotix]

I am trying to find out how to auto fill a word document in specific
parts from an Access Database.
We have a program that does this already but it only has set templates
and set fields it retrieves the data from. There is no indication as to
any setup for the database it uses or anything.

I've read about mail merge but cannot see how this is what I want as
all that seems to do is select users to send the document I supply from
the database.

If anyone can link me to any information on how to do this or explain
in a bit more detail I would really apreciate it.

Thanks

 

[Joseph Meehan]

There is more than one way of doing what you want. In addition I would
guess that different versions of Access and Word may have different versions
of how to do this.

I would guess you have a good knowledge of Word and a lesser knowledge
of Access. If I am right I suggest finding someone who knows Access well to
help you out. Access is very powerful, but not too friendly to the new user,
it has a steep learning curve since it works so different than must users
have experienced in other programs.

If you don't know anyone with that kind of knowledge locally, then you
may end up spending a lot of time reading and working with Access, to get
familiar with it.

We can give it a try here, but first you will need to tell us some more
details.

What version of Access and Word do you have? What is your personal
knowledge level of each of those? What information do you want to get from
Access? How will you select what records in Access has that information?

What do you mean "There is no indication as to any setup for the
database it uses or anything." Do you mean you don't know what database is
supply the data?

It may make more sense to use an Access report than sending the
information to Word.

Please excuse the un-organized presentation I have made. It is just a
conversational stream of thoughts.

 

[Bob I]

Try actually working your way through the mail merge wizard, it will
become a lot more obvious when you do the steps.

 

[kaotix]

Thanks for your reply, the presentation was fine as I read it with th
same train of through in mind anyway

I have good knowledge of Word and good knowledge of Access but not
great deal of knowledge on this side of things with Access. Also, ca
you really have good knowledge of Word when its just a word processo
and doesn't really do anything exceptional? Anyway

I understand your question regarding the reports in Access and do se
this as a possibility for my solution, but this is really more to as
'how' to do it in Word for future reference
I am currently using Office 2003
I want to, for now, just get example data from the database which wil
just be text fields in a simple table

Thank

 

[kaotix]

Thanks Bob i'll see what happens. I didn't see your reply until I had
posted mine.

 

[Bob I]

Try this link then.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA010349201033.aspx

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Word is a rather complex program once you learn about it's features.
The thing is 95% of the users only know and use about 20% of the program.
They lack knowledge of the other 80%. I would have to guess that it is
designed that way intentionally to make it less intimidating. I still am
haunted by my employees who repeatedly came to me because their files
disappeared. Of course what happened is they dropped off the recently used
list. They had no idea where the files were actually stored. (Oh yea, my
administrator had the same problem.

From the sounds of things, I think you will be able to work your way
through this one. IMO that is the best way to learn something new.

 

[kaotix]

Well to be fair the mail merge does actually do a good job of this. But
to call it a mail merge is totally stupid and mis-leading.

With mail merge you can actually choose what ever fields you want to
put into the document and it doesn't have to be a recipient.
The recipients are actually just rows in the table itself and you can
select what ever record from that table row to display within the
document.

I hope this helps anyone else out who is looking for a similar solution
to this problem as mail merge really does seem to be a good but
mis-leading option.

Thanks to everyone that gave me a response, its greatly appreciated.

 

[Bob I]

It's been Mail merge for over a decade. It was for that purpose that it
was designed. Just because you want to use it for another purpose, and
it works well for that, it's hardly fair to call it misnamed or
mis-leading.

 

[Bob I]

Hi Joe,

I think perhaps you meant to reply to OP, not me.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Yes, sorry

Hi Joe,

I think perhaps you meant to reply to OP, not me.

Joseph Meehan wrote: