Converting RTF eventually to Access

[Clint]

I have a client who has about 600 RTF documents that they
want to view in an Access 2000 DB. Oddly enough, the
RTFs were generated from the very same database. It
won't be enough to just link and open the RTF, unless
there was a way for the user to specify sorting and
filtering criteria from WITHIN the RTFs

I though there might be a way to read an RTF doc line by
line and parse out the text. Basically, the RTFs consist
of several field label names and appropriate data for
each label. Most of the docs have the same label names
and there is a colon after every lablel that separates
the label from the data.

I would even consider a multi-step process, like
converting to another format and then importing into
Access.

I'm probably missing a lot of detail so if I need to post
more info, just let me know. I would attach a sample RTF
if I could. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Clint

 

[Larry Linson]

If the RTF files were generated from a database, then I can only assume that
they are output from a report. From your description, it would seem that you
want to turn them back into records. Unless someone has written code to
ignore the formatting and extract the actual data, then I'd say you'll need
to determine the markup/formatting characters, write code to read the files
record by record and eliminate the format, and load them into tables.

I haven't had to deal with RTF at that detail level, so perhaps someone else
can offer suggestions about where to find a definition of the format, etc..
A quick search at http://www.google.com yields one article that may offer
enough of what you need regarding stripping out the markup... "Writing a
..RTF document using PHP : PHP Forums : DevShed.com...". It appears that the
RTF markup is preceded by a \ (backslash) character, so it may be easy to
identify. Separating the labels from the data may be a bit trying, though,
unless all these reports are in the same format.

Sad to say, "RTF" is not one of the available options for Get External Data.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[david epsom dot com dot au]

I would even consider a multi-step process, like

converting to another format and then importing into

Possibly, Save as XML. I don't know how good
current versions of Word are at that. Possibly, Save
as HTML Access can attempt import of XML and
HTML data.

(david)

 

[Clint]

I probably shound have said this in my 1st post, but the
RTF documents are separate from the DB. They are
generated from an Access report and then saved in a
folder. It sounds like your advice is geared toward
dealing with RTFs within DBs, unless I am missing
something, which I could very well be.

Thanks,
Clint