Output Data To Word Document
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Need a nudge in the right direction and to see if this is even possible.
We have a sales ticket which someone made in Word. This is normally on handwritten 2-copy sheets.
I've been tasked with making this a little more electronic so they can enter the info and then send to a printer in the shop. They don't trust manually numbering the sheets and would like a way to automate the numbering of the ticket number.
I've tried making the same form in Excel but it just didn't match with the Word document.
So, exploring my options. Any suggestions on perhaps making an interface to enter the data and then having it output to a Word template like this? One suggestion I had was to try using our SharePoint (Office 365) with an Access database.
Thanks...
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I don't know enough about Sharepoint or Access to say,.. but Google Docs/ Forms?
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@g.jacobse said:
I don't know enough about Sharepoint or Access to say,.. but Google Docs/ Forms?
Yeah I was going to suggest Access to - create a form in Access. Though, if Access can do it, I'd be surprised if Excel couldn't - unfortunately I don't have enough experience to be helpful to you.
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Yeah. this will be trial and error and another "development" learning curve for me. Every time I decided to study or dive back into my pending Excel VBA projects, I get busy with the stuff I am good at.
The problem I had with Excel is that I needed some table columns wider than another table (in the same sheet) and you can do that. Unless I am missing something...
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Sure you can, Right click Merge two or more cells.
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This is the word document:
The problem I have in Excel is making look exactly like this...if I could, I could just make a few Macros for numbering the sheets and be done with it. But I couldn't get my tables to individually widen without affecting the main column...for example, Description being wider than the SALESPERON field...
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Quickly looking at this, I'd have:
JOB ID be the width of columns A and B,
Description be the width of C and D.
Date Ordered shrunk down to E only
and leave Date Complete to F and G.So you'd need to Merge A and B for Job ID
Merge C and D for Description
Date Ordered would remain the same same column for E
Date Complete would be merged for F and GYes it will be a little different, but you're filling this out on a computer now, it can afford to be.
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InfoPath?
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@Dashrender said:
Quickly looking at this, I'd have:
JOB ID be the width of columns A and B,
Description be the width of C and D.
Date Ordered shrunk down to E only
and leave Date Complete to F and G.So you'd need to Merge A and B for Job ID
Merge C and D for Description
Date Ordered would remain the same same column for E
Date Complete would be merged for F and GYes it will be a little different, but you're filling this out on a computer now, it can afford to be.
Excellent...let me give it a shot...different is something our HR person doesn't care for much...
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@Dashrender said:
Quickly looking at this, I'd have:
JOB ID be the width of columns A and B,
Description be the width of C and D.
Date Ordered shrunk down to E only
and leave Date Complete to F and G.So you'd need to Merge A and B for Job ID
Merge C and D for Description
Date Ordered would remain the same same column for E
Date Complete would be merged for F and GYes it will be a little different, but you're filling this out on a computer now, it can afford to be.
This is what my work in progress spreadsheet looks like (with semi-private info blanked out)...I assume I may need to start over if I do some merging?
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You can unmerge if needed.
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@Dashrender said:
You can unmerge if needed.
All things said.. you're probably better off with Access or something else.
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@Dashrender said:
@Dashrender said:
You can unmerge if needed.
All things said.. you're probably better off with Access or something else.
Yeah. going to try Access...it seems like a step backward but they don't call Office "Office" for no reason. It for sure helps us in a small business.
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@garak0410 said:
Yeah. going to try Access...it seems like a step backward but they don't call Office "Office" for no reason. It for sure helps us in a small business.
Why do you see Access as a step backwards?
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@garak0410 It's not really a step backwards, but a step forward.
Think of it this way... instead of saving every single form you create in word every day, and then spending the time to search said selection of forms, you can dump all of this into a database.
Investing time on the front end of this project will save you boat-loads of time on the back end.
And you've got your database tables already created for the most part... time to just change that form into tables and then write the report against it....
(assuming you don't have anything like that in place already.)
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@Dashrender said:
@garak0410 said:
Yeah. going to try Access...it seems like a step backward but they don't call Office "Office" for no reason. It for sure helps us in a small business.
Why do you see Access as a step backwards?
Oh from the various advice I get from the forums when seeking development suggestions. Every time I seek Excel/VBA help, someone will usually say RUN from it and get on ASP.NET. Could be trolls?
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@milnesy said:
@garak0410 It's not really a step backwards, but a step forward.
Think of it this way... instead of saving every single form you create in word every day, and then spending the time to search said selection of forms, you can dump all of this into a database.
Investing time on the front end of this project will save you boat-loads of time on the back end.
And you've got your database tables already created for the most part... time to just change that form into tables and then write the report against it....
(assuming you don't have anything like that in place already.)
That's the direction I am going. :)...per my previous comment, I've not approached Access much at all because so many people say go web based. Well, I am still not an expert developer so I need easy right now. I did start to use Access yesterday for this form from Dashrender's suggestion and it looks like it will work for me...
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@garak0410 said:
Oh from the various advice I get from the forums when seeking development suggestions. Every time I seek Excel/VBA help, someone will usually say RUN from it and get on ASP.NET. Could be trolls?
Kind of. Possibly just people who don't really have a good grasp on how this stuff works and want to post something. VBA cannot be easily replaced. They are probably confusing it with VB, which should always be replaced. Or just trolls.
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@garak0410 said:
@Dashrender said:
@garak0410 said:
Yeah. going to try Access...it seems like a step backward but they don't call Office "Office" for no reason. It for sure helps us in a small business.
Why do you see Access as a step backwards?
Oh from the various advice I get from the forums when seeking development suggestions. Every time I seek Excel/VBA help, someone will usually say RUN from it and get on ASP.NET. Could be trolls?
If you're comfortable - even if you're not - maybe going with a web frontend and a MySQL DB. It would be nearly universally available. My issue is I barely know where to even begin on a project like that.
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Excessive use of Access can be a nightmare in organisations. I don't particularly mind IT pros using it, it's when end users starting developing applications in it that things go wrong. I mainly hate it for that reason.
But reports of Access's demise have been greatly exaggerated, although Microsoft seem to be now marketing it more as a Sharepoint app designer than a standalone tool. Are you planning on using it that way?
I prefer everything to be browser based, so no longer use it (other than as a nice front end for SQL Server queries). This is just personal taste, I guess. Mind you, I still develop with classic ASP rather than ASP.net, so I'm still into my ancient technologies.
