email a Access form as it looks on the screen...I'm a Dunce!

[dexyowl]

I know absolutely nothing about computers, or the programming of, I don't know ANY of the terms used... I mean NONE of the terms used and I really need someone's help. A friend of mine created a Access database for me around 2001 that catalogues all my customers under their own exclusive customer number. I run a 2 man (airport) taxi company and the database allows me to click on relevant 'boxes' to take a swift and efficient booking. I can print off a customer confirmation form, diary pages and envelopes to post them in. I have recently teamed up with a 'business partner' and I need to email him the A4 booking forms every day as new bookings come in. We operate 15 miles apart. The form on the screen looks just like a page from a book, but there are box borders around some of the text. I need to email this to my partner and he needs to open it, enter it on to his copy of the database and then update the information using his 'update query' facility, thereby having exactly the same info on his database as I have on mine. Also, the roles will have to be reversed as he will take other bookings on his system that have to be emailed to me.
Can one of you please instruct me how we can do this and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, make the instructions so simple that a 5 year old could execute them. The use of ANY computer speak language may well as be in Chinese, as both of us haven't a clue. We need to be told click on this and then click on that etc. etc. I hope one of you can find the time and the willingness to help. Thanks in anticipation...Dexyowl

[NeoPa]

I can't imagine that help of this form can be given in a forum of this kind - sorry.
We work mainly with concepts and you say you can't work at that level. There is far too much involved in this to explain it step by step.
The best advice I can give you is to get someone in to look at your exact situation and see if they can come up with a practical solution for you.
This will take them a fair while just getting the details of the job down.
Sorry we can't be more helpful, but you can leave this here in case anyone else can come up with a different answer for you.

[MMcCarthy]

As a temporary measure you can use something like Cute pdf (freeware) to create pdf files from your Access documents and attach them to the email.

Mary

[Rabbit]

Actually, it sounds more like he wants them to have the same data rather than sending the form as it looks.

If this is the case, just e-mail him your database.

[NeoPa]

That can be practical in some circumstances, but the database would have to be quite small. There are still many e-mail systems that don't handle anything over 1MB. That said, I do send some of my data that way (after Compacting and Zipping it of course).

[dexyowl]

I can't imagine that help of this form can be given in a forum of this kind - sorry.
We work mainly with concepts and you say you can't work at that level. There is far too much involved in this to explain it step by step.
The best advice I can give you is to get someone in to look at your exact situation and see if they can come up with a practical solution for you.
This will take them a fair while just getting the details of the job down.
Sorry we can't be more helpful, but you can leave this here in case anyone else can come up with a different answer for you.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I didn't think it would be that easy but I had to try. Another expert has posted some 'computer speak' in their reply which I will endeavour to chase up. Wish me luck!...Thanks again.

[dexyowl]

I can't imagine that help of this form can be given in a forum of this kind - sorry.
We work mainly with concepts and you say you can't work at that level. There is far too much involved in this to explain it step by step.
The best advice I can give you is to get someone in to look at your exact situation and see if they can come up with a practical solution for you.
This will take them a fair while just getting the details of the job down.
Sorry we can't be more helpful, but you can leave this here in case anyone else can come up with a different answer for you.

The other expert I mentioned in my last posting was Mary...sorry Mary

[NeoPa]

Of course good luck :)
If you do get a concept proposed and want help with some details then we'll be here.

[dexyowl]

As a temporary measure you can use something like Cute pdf (freeware) to create pdf files from your Access documents and attach them to the email.

Mary

Thanks for replying and for your suggestion. I'm that much of a mug I haven't a clue what a pdf file is but I will follow it up and no doubt I'll be back in touch when I fail to negotiate 'cute pdf ' You really don't know what sort of a dunce you're dealing with here! ....Happy Chinese New Year!

[NeoPa]

The other expert I mentioned in my last posting was Mary...sorry Mary

Are you referring to post #3?
Mary is just saying that CutePDF, if installed onto your PC can create PDF files for you which could be sent via e-mail. This would be very similar to hard-copy though and wouldn't be usable electronically. It depends on exactly how this needs to work (bearing in mind what can work of course).

PDF = Portable Document Format.
A file that can be read just about anywhere but is not supposed to be updatable (Like a write-once / Read Many times document). The recipient could read it but probably couldn't use the information electronically (Can't copy / paste).
HTH.

[dexyowl]

Actually, it sounds more like he wants them to have the same data rather than sending the form as it looks.

If this is the case, just e-mail him your database.

Thanks for your reply Rabbit. Want I want is for all the information to be transferred 15 miles away so that all new bookings I take in my office can be sent to my mate's office where he can insert them on to his database, update the records through his update query facility. This creates relevant diary pages, customer confirmation forms, envelopes etc. The same applies for any bookings he takes and e-mails to me. We have tried to send the whole database but it must be too large or whatever as they failed to arrive. I will chase up a suggestion posted by Mary regarding pdf files, but as you may have gathered, I'm not confident at all with the whole thing!

[dexyowl]

Are you referring to post #3?
Mary is just saying that CutePDF, if installed onto your PC can create PDF files for you which could be sent via e-mail. This would be very similar to hard-copy though and wouldn't be usable electronically. It depends on exactly how this needs to work (bearing in mind what can work of course).

PDF = Portable Document Format.
A file that can be read just about anywhere but is not supposed to be updatable (Like a write-once / Read Many times document). The recipient could read it but probably couldn't use the information electronically (Can't copy / paste).
HTH.

Thanks again. It's good to be learning a little bit. The document really does need to be processed electronically, so I'll pass on Mary's suggestion. Would copying and pasting a booking on to excel send as a e-mail and would these paste back on to access at our other office and be workable electronically?

[MMcCarthy]

I will chase up a suggestion posted by Mary regarding pdf files, but as you may have gathered, I'm not confident at all with the whole thing!

The pdf files won't work for the kind of thing you're describing.

Can you open the table with the information stored in it? If so you can export this to an excel file and just send that to your partner.

Mary

[MMcCarthy]

The pdf files won't work for the kind of thing you're describing.

Can you open the table with the information stored in it? If so you can export this to an excel file and just send that to your partner.

Mary

Actually, I'm just thinking about something. Try exporting the report to Excel and see what you get. This may solve your problem.

Mary

[dexyowl]

The pdf files won't work for the kind of thing you're describing.

Can you open the table with the information stored in it? If so you can export this to an excel file and just send that to your partner.

Mary

Thanks again Mary, I've just asked NeoPa if I could use excel in some way to transfer stuff and then lo and behold your suggestion appeared on my screen. This looks very promising now. Thanks. When you say export....is that complicated or a simple copy and paste funtion?

[MMcCarthy]

Thanks again Mary, I've just asked NeoPa if I could use excel in some way to transfer stuff and then lo and behold your suggestion appeared on my screen. This looks very promising now. Thanks. When you say export....is that complicated or a simple copy and paste funtion?

When the report is open go to File - Export. When the window opens to save the file change the 'Save as type' from Microsoft Access to Microsoft Excel and then click save.

Mary

[dexyowl]

When the report is open go to File - Export. When the window opens to save the file change the 'Save as type' from Microsoft Access to Microsoft Excel and then click save.

Mary

You're a star! I'll give it a bash and see how we go. Thanks go to you and the others who've helped me. I'll let you know how I get on. I'm afraid the file may grow too large to send, but then again...I can send only the most recent. Great! thanks

[NeoPa]

Avoid sending a Report via Excel!
You will have more new problems than solved old ones.
However, as it's the underlying data you want to copy/paste, do one of two things :

1. Basic - Open the table with the data you want to transfer then copy/paste into Excel.
2. Design a query (We can help assuming you provide the relevant MetaData) and run that every time. Copying/pasting the results into Excel.

The beauty of the second approach is that it can select only new records, or only records entered or changed since a particular date. Obviously, this could only work this way if there is a DateTime field in your table which is updated to reflect the date when edited.

[apartain]

May I suggest looking into Microsoft InfoPath? InfoPath is a form-creation software (included in the new MS Office Ulitmate suite) which allows you to enter information into a form, and since the information is actually stored WITHIN the form, it can be emailed back and forth. You can connect your InfoPath form to your Access database and set it up to automatically update it when you open the form.

InfoPath is easy to use and straight-forward. You drag and drop fields to create your forms, and there are wizards to help you along with connecting the forms to your databases.