Access Report Issue - Really Need Help

[narpet]

Hello all...

My company generates reports in an Access database that are used as quotes for our customers. We have always then mailed (snail mail) the quotes to the customer.

Now my boss wants to send these quotes via email. I made it so that he can save the reports as snapshots and then send those to our customers, but not everyone can view them. I thought that the snapshot viewer from Microsoft would allow any Windows user to view the reports, thus fixing our little problem. However, I have some customers who can't get the viewer to work... long story short... I can't (and don't have the resources) to physically go to the customer's location and make their pc run the viewer properly. So....

My question is... does anyone have an idea for a way that we can send these quotes (Access reports) to customers without having to use a third party product like adobe creator? All of the other forms for saving an Access report just save the data, and not the report formatting. I need a way to create a jpeg, bitmap, or any other file format the is readily available in all version of Windows, without using anything from a third party.

I appreciate any ideas that anyone may have...

Thanks,
Rodney

[ADezii]

Hello all...

My company generates reports in an Access database that are used as quotes for our customers. We have always then mailed (snail mail) the quotes to the customer.

Now my boss wants to send these quotes via email. I made it so that he can save the reports as snapshots and then send those to our customers, but not everyone can view them. I thought that the snapshot viewer from Microsoft would allow any Windows user to view the reports, thus fixing our little problem. However, I have some customers who can't get the viewer to work... long story short... I can't (and don't have the resources) to physically go to the customer's location and make their pc run the viewer properly. So....

My question is... does anyone have an idea for a way that we can send these quotes (Access reports) to customers without having to use a third party product like adobe creator? All of the other forms for saving an Access report just save the data, and not the report formatting. I need a way to create a jpeg, bitmap, or any other file format the is readily available in all version of Windows, without using anything from a third party.

I appreciate any ideas that anyone may have...

Thanks,
Rodney

From what I understand, the only way to accomplish the E-Mailing of Reports while retaining all their original formatting is to either have the Snapshot Viewer or Microsoft Access installed on the recipient's PC. You do state whether or not you are on a Intranet. If you are, simply install the Snapshot Viewer on the Server and have the Clients view the Reports via this route.

[MSeda]

I know you said you don't want a third party application but pdf print drivers work very well for what you need. I like cutePDF (its free). the user has to name the file and can change the location is my biggest complaint. but I like to print reports like invoices and quotes to the server. It serves a backup for important documents and is easy to search.
I've been meaning to do a search for an activeX pdf print driver that works well and is in my price range (free) but I haven't gotten around to that yet, Maybe someone knows of one.

http://www.cutepdf.com/

[narpet]

Thanks very much for all of your input. I tried the cutepdf and it works great. I am going to use that as a solution to our problem.

Thanks everyone!
Rodney

[MSeda]

I'm Glad it worked for you.
I'd still be interested if anyone knows of any activeX controls that let you create pdfs programmatically.

Megan