Stupid Report Problem - copy and paste

[techtony]

Ok,



This is just stupid really.

I have a report that we have designed without a problem. This report basically grabs all the data we use to email certain people in our organization at the end of a process. We used to have to go into 5 different systems and copy and paste into an email.

This report is MEANT to cut this process down one simple copy and paste operation.

Unfortunately we have discovered that the report that I meticulously laid out and formatted - cannot under any circumstance be copied and pasted. When we go to copy the portion of the report we want to paste into and the email, it pastes the table field names, along with the data in a long table format.

Is there any way to have a report display the information so that what we see is what we copy? It is like it wants to copy the underlying parts and not just the text on the screen in the report.

Example:

Name: Tom Jones
Phone: 800-980-7824
Technician: Joe Smith


When we copy this and paste it - it pastes this in spreadsheet fashion:

[customer_first_name][Tom][Jones][customer_phone_number][800-980-7824][assigned_process_technician_3][Joe][Smith]

Instead of the nicely laid out thing above.

Any ideas or help?

[June7]

Sorry, that's the way it is.

Can send email directly from Access by several methods. Rather common topic in forum. One way will create a PDF of report and attach it to email. Another is to construct body of email with concatenation of data and literal text.

[techtony]

Wow - this is just stupid. So now we spent all of this work to find out you cannot copy and paste from a report. PDF is not an option because some departments take the email and run it through their own batch processes and such. Emailing from access is not going to work either since we do not have outlook on our systems - we all use gmail.

This is one of the DUMBEST F***ing things I have ever heard of!

And now I remember why everyone wanted MySQL and PHP instead.

[June7]

Outlook not required.

Bing: Access vba gmail

http://www.blueclaw-db.com/access_email_gmail.htm

I don't know MySQL or PHP so can't say they would address your copy/paste requirement.

[techtony]

Thank you!!!!! That is such a perfect solution!

I still hate Microsoft for the way they handle reports - it should honestly just be text, or they should have a text only view in my opinion.

[June7]

If you really wanted copy/paste, report could be exported to Excel, Word RTF, text, HTML.

Do you know any database program with built-in report generator that has a text only view? Can copy/paste of Crystal Reports even be done? I will have to test that when I get to office next week.

[techtony]

Here is my point of the rant: It does not matter if a built in report generator allows you to copy and paste in other programs. I was not trying to make a comparison, BUT it was said earlier that this is a COMMON problem reported by folks on the forums. If I were the developer of Access (which since I am not making a 6 figure salary and do not work for Microsoft that answers itself LOL), I would make it easier for on screen formatting and layout to simply be copied and pasted. I am a customer, who along with many others, find it stupid for an on screen report to be adulterated with underlying elements. I could understand that - if you copied the design view and tried to paste it that the under lying elements be copied - that I would understand. I do not get the whole "it cannot be done" mentality of these developers. It can be done, and if they did it, it would set them above the competition. Just my opinion of course. In all this has proven to be a great desktop database - but it has flaws that are blaring.

[techtony]

By the way - the only way I could figure out how to export it to RTF was to hit Print Preview, then right-click and select export to rtf and go from there. Is there a simpler way, or is that what needs to happen?

[June7]

I'm still curious if any database report generator program has the capability.

DoCmd.OutputTo method in VBA can export objects to various file formats.

[techtony]

Not sure - this is my first venture into desktop databases.
I have always used PHP/MySQL or POSTgreSQL. And since you have complete control of layout and design in a web application, these underlying elements are not an issue - if your user copies your page - they can paste it pretty much as they see it. They get "My Pretty Pony Report" and not "<HTML><BODY><H1><B>My Pretty Pony Report</b></H1></Body></HTML>".

[June7]

I just explored copy/paste in a proprietary application that I think uses Crystal Reports. But since I am not sure what the front end is coded in (could even be VB6) not sure of the report engine. Can't select anything on the report.

Realized never tried copy/paste from Access report. Not working. Can't get the output results you describe. I tried Layout, Report, PrintPreview views. Nothing is sent to the clipboard. Exactly how did you get that?

[techtony]

I just explored copy/paste in a proprietary application that I think uses Crystal Reports. But since I am not sure what the front end is coded in (could even be VB6) not sure of the report engine. Can't select anything on the report.

Realized never tried copy/paste from Access report. Not working. Can't get the output results you describe. I tried Layout, Report, PrintPreview views. Nothing is sent to the clipboard. Exactly how did you get that?

I just did a normal copy and paste - Put the cursor at the top and dragged down to select everything and then right clicked and selected copy.

[June7]

Okay, got it, just a little tricky finding the starting point. In Report View. Drag, select, Ctrl+C, go to Word, Ctrl+V. The result is a table. Same result with right click. Afraid it is what it is.