Word 'form' to access data base

[Vsn]

Hello all,

I look for a solution or direction to a solution for the following:-

I have a Word template which our outside units use to order spare parts and
request consumables. All units are stand-alone and mail the request
form/template toward me. Now I would like to track all incomming requests,
for their status etc. in one DB as such I look for a method which lets me
maybe start a macro or VB code in the Word document find all the input
(which is in a table) and writes is to an Access DB file. From the Access DB
I can than inform the units about the order/request status and print
despatch notes etc.

With just word documents its untracable and retyping (copy/paste) all into a
data base looks a bit silly to me.

Can anyone suggest a good solution.

Thx alot.
Ludovic

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Ludovic,

If the "table" in the Word document is laid out like an Access table,
this isn't very complicated. If it's a Word table with a more
complicated layout (e.g. with headings, subtotals, merged cells etc.)
things can get hairy and it's a good idea to redesign the template using
formfields and document protection to limit what users can enter.

If you search the newsgroups (e.g. via Google Groups) for something like
group:microsoft.public.access* import "word table"
you'll find some relevant information. Also see http://word.mvps.org.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

See the last of the following series of articles:

Please Fill Out This Form
Part 1: Create professional looking forms in Word
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=22

Part 2: Adding Automation to your Word forms.
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=46

Part 3: Learn more VBA (macros) to automate your forms.
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=119

Part 4: Use custom dialog boxes in your Word forms
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=127

Part 5: Connect your AutoForm to a database to save input time and keep
better records!
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=136

Just how you go about it will depend on the arrangement of the forms that
you receive and it may be advisable to re-design those to facilitate what
you want to do.

A little while ago, I set up a system for a person who was emailing Word
documents that contained formfields (with the document protected) out to
people and was then receiving the completed form back by email. In the
system that I set up, these form documents were then saved to a folder and a
procedure ran that extracted the data from the formfields and inserted it
into the relevant fields of a table in the database. The documents that had
been processed were then "moved" to a folder for processed documents so that
if the procedure was run a second time, duplicate records would not be
created.

--
Hope this helps.


Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Vsn]

John, thx got the idea at the word-mvps site.

Hi Ludovic,

If the "table" in the Word document is laid out like an Access table,
this isn't very complicated. If it's a Word table with a more
complicated layout (e.g. with headings, subtotals, merged cells etc.)
things can get hairy and it's a good idea to redesign the template using
formfields and document protection to limit what users can enter.

If you search the newsgroups (e.g. via Google Groups) for something like
group:microsoft.public.access* import "word table"
you'll find some relevant information. Also see http://word.mvps.org.

 

[Vsn]

Doug, thx.

I will have to modify the forms and will take your setup into consideration,
its a good idea to put them in one folder and get them to be searched
automatically. This will however take me more sleepless nights.

Ludovic