How to include a simple, text-only table in a table field, or OLE?

[nayoblie]

Hello,

I'm a new user and am not sure where to post this.



Ok, so over the last year, I have pieced together an Access database. I built it to organize and data mine all of the data I have transcribed in the process of researching a history dissertation--none of the sleek-GUI programs that are out there for research organizing couldn't do or handle what I needed it to. As it is currently, the database suits all my needs (data entry, continuous, multi-criteria searching sorting, report printouts, etc), except in one way.

I have a number of tables that are a mixture of population data (thus numbers) and other reports (primarily text). I have these both transcribed in Word in documents hundreds of pages long, as well as in Excel workbooks that are also very long.

Here's an example:

Clases	Casados	viudos	solteros	Niños	totales
hombres	55	18	27	185	285
mujeres	55	34	49	162	300
total	110	52	76	347	585

All I want is for it to show up in the rich text field format. Discovering that RTF will not support that, at least under normal circumstances, I have experimented with including an OLE field in my table, in which data would be populated via an unbound field on my data entry form, and included in my report. I have tried Word and Excel formats as embedded OLE. I don't think that linking data from the word and excel files is practicable, granted the length of the source files. I also want to prevent unnecessary bloat and structural weaknesses. And resizing OLEs on a report seems to either be a nightmare or impossible. So my question is: how can I make simple tables, such as the one above, appear in my data entry subform which writes to the Rich Text field of my table, as well as make it populate my report? I would prefer to have it in-line, where it comes in the text, and hindsight is 20/20, but I need some sort of solution. As it is now, when I paste the rich text from Word (the transcribed document) into my subform that populates the Rich Text table field, this is what the above table looks like:

Clases Casados viudos solteros Niños totales


hombres 55 18 27 185 285


mujeres 55 34 49 162 300

That's OK, I guess, with two-row tables, but anything bigger than than, and the data is unreadable.

Thanks,
JG

[ranman256]

tables are not for RTF. They just hold the data
reports are. They display data.

[nayoblie]

tables are not for RTF. They just hold the data
reports are. They display data.

Thus, the whole reason for my post. What I need is some way to display simple charts, which should not be considered calculable data, but as structured text (often the tables, for example, are mathematically incorrect), in a SECOND field precisely BECAUSE rtf will not support it. Whether that's in a tameable OLE field, or another type of solution, I don't care, I just need a way for a readable chart to be included in my reports. One way would be to enable tabbing. Is tabbing possible in any form in Access outside of an OLE?

[HiTechCoach]

Starting with Access 2007 there is support for Rich Text. Access's Rich Text is HTML. It is NOT RTF.

I have been using an RTF ActiveX control to display and store RTF data in a Memo field for 10+ years. See: http://www.lebans.com/richtext.htm

It is also possible to store HTML data in a memo field and use a Web Browser Control to display the data. I have done w=this with great success. I can use all the power of HTML formatting. This is what Microsoft attempted to do with the Rich Text and the Text Box control. Unfortunately the Text Box control doe not fully support HTML like the Web Browser Control.

Either method should handle what you need.

[nayoblie]

Boyd,

Thank you for the suggestion!
The lebans RTF2 worked like a charm, after some tweaking. It does everything I want, except when it comes to reports. When opening the report in report view, it does not appear, which is fine, but when I go to print preview, it crashes every time. However, if I put the RTF Active X box in a subform, it works as it should, and I can print the report, chart included. That's great, but now I'm facing the problem of having the report's subform auto-expand if the text is longer than the size of the text box. Yes, Can Grow is set to "Yes" in the subform. I suspect that isn't going to do much, as the RTF2-enabled box does not give me the option.

Any suggestions?

[HiTechCoach]

I avoid Report view most of the time.

tHE example report has VBA code to make the ActiveX control grow on a report. Did you add this VBA code to your report?

II have tried several different RTF ActiveX controls and they all have issues with printing on Access report.

I have the best success when I only use it to print on a single page. I use it to generate letters that are only a single page.

Curious, have you tried Microsoft OneNote? Starting with OneNote 2013 it is now a free download on teh Microsoft site.

[nayoblie]

Boyd,

Funny you should mention it. I use OneNote religiously, especially its ability to render OCR, even from screenshots, and its incredibly useful linked notes function. I am using Access, however, for the sorting and searching capabilities. I can print the records on the continuous form as a filtered report, ordered by date, their archival call number, etc. It's essential for me to be able to search through space and time, as it were


I print the report pdf into One Note, where it OCR's the printout (so I can search within a single OneNote page), and I then can use linked notes to create my outline.

One thing I wonder is if I can link notes from OneNote to Access, perhaps to an Access field, as you can with excel and word. I have not been able to find anything like that.

Cheers,