What is a good way to do document retrieval with an Access database?

[M Skabialka]

Users with many .tif and .dbf files want me to come up with a way to be able
to retrieve them through an Access database, because now they print them and
keep a hard copy, so it is hard to find them in the file cabinet. Some of
them keep copies in email, some save to folders, some delete them after
they are printed.

We are trying to wean them away from lists of the files in multiple Word
documents and Excel spreadsheets so I have to go easy on them to start off
with!

Does anyone have any ideas, advice or examples of a good way to do this?

The users want to be able to look something up by date, or user, or
division, etc, (that will be easy enough to set up).

Then they want to click on information about the record that was found and
view the document (.tif or .pdf) that was saved.

I am thinking that storing the image in Access (is that possible?) would
cause it to expand rapidly, as about 300 images a year are under
consideration.

I have tried hyperlinks in the past but the users were reluctant to browse
to the file and set up the hyperlink, including the name, etc, so the link
would have to be done by code if hyperlinks were to be used.

Any advice from anyone who has done document management projects already, or
pointers to sites which show good examples?

Thanks,
Mich

 

[tina]

you can find a full-blown, functioning doc-manager db at MVP Arvin Meyer's
website
http://www.datastrat.com/DataStrat2.html
it works "out of the box", and Arvin most generously left the db unlocked so
you can get in and see the code that runs it, as well.
i just tried it out and thought it was way cool; i know i'll be using it to
manage all the docs in my various (and varied) folders!
Arvin, you're a prince - thanks so much!

hth

 

[M Skabialka]

Not exactly what I was looking for but it gives me a whole new perspective
on how I can write my own database, and I will be able to use the code for
creating file names and paths as well.

However we do have staff (past and present) who all have all used different
conventions in saving documents into shared folders and I am going to give
them copies of Arvin's database to help them find files. I changed the code
(thanks for leaving it open) to make the description the same as the file
name as they have a lot of documents (we do monthly reports for multiple
departments) and the file names are pretty good descriptions of their
contents, and it would take a long time to create keywords.

So double thanks to MVP Arvin Meyer!
Mich

 

[support]

I am from the Access support department at http://www.enterpriseprojectconsulting.com and we would be happy to assist you in resolving your issue

Thank you

Enterprise Project Consulting

 

[support]

I am from the Access support department at http://www.enterpriseprojectconsulting.com and we would be happy to assist you in resolving your issue

Thank you

Enterprise Project Consulting