Add multiple blank lines to a Report from TextBox? - sql

I have an Access Database linked to a Crystal Report (2011). The Report has many Sections, one Group, as well as several Sub Reports.
Each Sub Report is in its own Section on the main Report. Each Section/Sub Report is set to "Keep together on one page."
What my boss is looking for is a way to add space "on-demand" to the end of any section. In other words, he wants the report to be a word document that he can freely add lines to.
I know this is not exactly possible. I do realize that you can export a Report as a .doc File, but that takes extra steps and we are trying to automate this as much as possible.
What I am considering is a TextBox (TextBox1) in Access that allows you to type in a number and adding a that number of blank lines to a different TextBox (TextBox2) (E.g. if you type 3 in TextBox1 then the value for TextBox2 would be something like "". Then referencing TextBox2 in a formula in the Report using HTML interpretation.
Is there an easy way to do this?
Does anyone have any better suggestions?

If you haven't already, I'd try giving him/her a version of the report with "extra" blank space already included. Another option might be doing page breaks after the sub-reports. Make sure it looks good to you and then present it.
But, to do the variable blank spaces, I'd use a Crystal parameter (or multiple Crystal parameters). This way, everything is in one place. If the boss decides there should be one more line, he/she can just hit refresh and change the parameter rather than going back to the Access form. Once you have the parameter, add a formula to the form when you want the variable spaces, and set it to "can grow". The actual formula would be something like:
Local NumberVar i;
Local StringVar out := "";
for i := 1 to {?BlankLines} do
out := out + chr(13) + chr(10);
out;

Related

MS Word VB make check box control invisible when merge field is null

I have a query that pulls information I need to use in a mail merge document to email to people for verification of information. There are 8 fields they need to verify, preferably with a check box control, but some of the fields contain no information. I would like to make the check box next to merge fields that contain no data (or whatever I may need to write into the query to make this work) invisible. If this could be accomplished easier in a completely different way, that would be fine too. Thank you.
As Cindy said, this kind of thing is handled via field coding in the mailmerge main document, not via VB code. Such a field might be coded as:
{IF{MERGEFIELD myCheck}<> "" "[ ]"}
or:
{IF«myCheck»<> "" "[ ]"}
where 'myCheck' is the field name and '[ ]' is the checkbox content control.
Note: The field brace pairs (i.e. '{ }') for the above examples are all created in the document itself, via Ctrl-F9 (Cmd-F9 on a Mac or, if you’re using a laptop, you might need to use Ctrl-Fn-F9); you can't simply type them or copy & paste them from this message. Nor is it practical to add them via any of the standard Word dialogues. Likewise, the chevrons (i.e. '« »') are part of the actual mergefields - which you can insert from the 'Insert Merge Field' dropdown (i.e. you can't type or copy & paste them from this message, either). The spaces represented in the field constructions are all required.

Working with multiple discontinuous selection

I'm trying to do something with a multiple selection. I wanna add some text before every selected paragraph but, when I select multiple discontinuous paragraphs, if I do Selection.Paragraphs.Count I always get "1".
How could I work with all paragraphs apart?
Example:
Paragraph1(Selected first)
Paragraph2
Paragraph3(Selected second)
What I got when I try to add some text at the beginning of these paragraphs:
Paragraph1
Paragraph2
TEXTParagraph3
What I really want to obtain:
TEXTParagraph1
Paragraph2
TEXTParagraph3
I'm working like this:
sub x()
dim p as paragraph
for each p in selection.paragraphs
p.range.insertbefore("TEXT")
next
End sub
Word simply cannot do what you'd like for it to do. Developers have wished for this since multiple selections were introduced in 2003 (I think it was, might have been version 2007). Word's object model simply does not support it.
If this is something you want to provide to the user to make life easier you'll need to give the tool a way to mark the paragraphs so your code can recognize them. You could provide a macro, for example, that assigns an incrementing bookmark name to each selection (the user selects, then runs your macro; repeat for each paragraph). Your code can then address each bookmark and perform the actions. To make this more user friendly you can assign the macro to a keyboard shortcut and/or a button in the Ribbon/QAT and/or the right-click menu.

How do I edit an Access report on the fly?

This seems like it would be pretty simple, but I’ve been googling my brains out for the last two weeks and I can’t find the answer. I'm using Access 2010...
I have a form with a button that the user clicks to get a report, that button pops-up a form that ask for the date of the requested report and then the report open with the correct info. The problem is I need to manipulate the data before it is displayed. Some of it I’ve done directly through the SQL statement and some through the Control Source of the text boxes on the report. But some of the data is a little more complicated… I need to extract certain text from a “remarks” field (memo) and I need to concatenate a few fields together separated by a comma, some of which may be blank. I know I can use the “+” to do that as in “lastName & (“,” + firstName) which will eliminate the unwanted trailing comma… but what if “lastName” is blank… I will be left with an unwanted preceding comma???
How do I loop through the data as it is being “written” to the report so as to edit it “on-the-fly”? I don’t want the user to edit the data because I want to get the exact same results every time.
This an answer to the first question (but what if “lastName” is blank):
lastName & IIf(Len(Lastname) > 0, ",", "") & firstName

Printing custom ranges or items in Word 2010 using VBA

I am fairly new to VBA (Word 2010) and I'm unsure if something I'd like to do is even possible in the way that I want to do it, or if I need to investigate completely different avenues. I want to be able to print ranges (or items) that are not currently enumerated as part of either wdPrintOutRange or wdPrintOutItem. Is it possible to define a member of a wd enumeration?
As an example, I'd like to be able to print comments by a particular user. wdPrintComments is a member of the wdPrintOutItem enumeration, but, I only want comments that have an Initial value of JQC. Can I define a wdPrintCommentsJQC constant? My code is reasonably simple; I have a userform that lets the user pick some settings (comments by user, endnotes only, etc.) and a Run button whose Click event should generate a PrintOut method with the proper attributes. Am I on the wrong track?
(If it matters, the Initial values will be known to me as I write the code. I have a discrete list.)
No, it's not possible to add a constant to a predefined enumeration type.
However, one possible way to do this would be to build a string of page numbers which contain the items you wish to print, open the print dialog in the "dialogs" collection, and set it to print a specified range, andinsert the string containing the list of pages (separate them with commas). Finally, execute the .show method of the print dialog to show it to the user and give them the opportunity to set any other items and click the "ok" button. I've done something very similar when I needed to print a specific chapter of a long document, and so I had to specify the "from" section and page and the "to" section and page for the user. Below I just show how to specify a list of pages instead of the ".form" and "to" I was using:
With Dialogs(wdDialogFilePrint)
.Range = wdPrintRangeOfPages
.Pages = "3,5,7-11"
.show
end with
I'm not sure how you want to print the comments (or other elements), but you could create another document and insert what you want to print on this document.
According to what you want, you could insert them as they were (comments, footnotes, etc) or as plain text, or any other format.

Using VBA in MS Word 2007 to define page elements?

I'd like to be able to create a page element which I can feed text and it will form itself into the preferred layout. For instance:
{MACRO DocumentIntro("Introduction to Business Studies", "FP015", "Teachers' Guide")}
with that as a field, the output should be a line, the first two strings a certain size and font, centred, another line and then the third string fonted, sized and centred.
I know that's sort of TeX-like and perhaps beyond the scope of VBA, but if anyone's got any idea how it might be possible, please tell!
EDIT:
Ok, if I put the required information into Keyword, as part of the document properties, with some kind of unique separator, then that gets that info in, and the info will be unique to each document. Next one puts a bookmark where the stuff is going to be displayed. Then one creates an AutoOpen macro that goes to that bookmark, pulls the relevants out of the keywords, and forms the text appropriately into the bookmark's .Selection.
Is that feasible?
You're certainly on the right track here for a coding solution. However, there is a simpler way with no code - this is the type of scenario that Content Controls in Word 2007 were built for and with Fields/Properties, you can bind to content controls (CC). These CC can hold styles (like centered, bold, etc.). No VBA required.
The very easiest thing to do is to pick 3 built-in document properties that you will always want these to be. For example, "Title" could be your first string, "Subject" your second string and "Keywords" your third. Then, just go to the Insert ribbon, Quick Parts, Document Properties and insert, place and format those how you like. Then go to Word's start button (the orb thingy) and then under Prepare choose Properties. Here you can type, for example "Introduction to Business Studies", into the Title box and then just deselect it somehow (like click in another box). The Content Control for Title will be filled in automatically with your text.
If you want to use this for multiple files, just create this file as a .dotx (after CC insertion/placement/formatting and before updating the Document Properties' text). Then every time all you'll have to do is set these three properties with each new file.
Well, yes, it did turn out to be feasible.
Sub autoopen()
Dim sKeywords As String
sKeywords = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(4)
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("foo").Select
Selection.Text = sKeywords
End Sub
Okay, I have some filling out to do, but at least the guts of it are there.