[mso] Re: Access Concatenate//MS Word Merge

Hi James (and group).
 
The reason I was thinking of concatenating the awards into one field is that it 
works already.  Lemme 'splain:
 
Currently, we get data via a rather complex and time consuming process.  The 
data is in a CSV format with elements for each multi-record data type in a 
single field separated by an ASCII character box.  I don't know what that 
character is called but it looks like a space if imported to Word or a verticle 
rectangle in Notepad.  Here's a sample with 2 pipes representing the ASCII 
character:
 
"Smith", "John", "HighScore||Layout||Track||Image", "3.45||1027||15||A12BC4"
 
We use Word/Merge to create letters which might look something like this:
 
Dear John.
 
Thank you for your contribution of the following.  Please note the scores for 
each submission.  A year-end total will be provided once all entries have been 
collected.
 
HighScore          3.45
Layout              1027
Track                   15
Image         A12BC4
 
Thanks again for participating.  We look forward to your additional 
contributions.
 
Sincerely,
 
Somebody Incharge
 
My task James, has been to simplify the process.  Right now, the whole thing 
takes about 3 hours.  I can successfully get the data in about 10 minutes using 
Access.  Yaaaayyy me right?  Not so fast cowboy...my "customers" aren't happy.  
They don't like the way the letter looks in Access.  They want it centered on a 
page - horizontally OK-but VERTICALLY as well.
 
With help from this list, I've created Access reports/letters based on queries 
that retrieve the specific data from a single data file.  There are, so far, 15 
letters, each slightly different.  Using the example above with Access Reports 
I can get a letter but if it's a short letter, then it displays too high up on 
a page. I can't find a way to do the vertical centering.  Another thing is that 
sometimes, depending upon the submission, a special note may be needed. These 
notes are in a table which is fine, unless a particular person has more than 
one. Then, I get multiple records in the detail of the report.  The notes are 
memo fields which sometimes get truncated. I've tried placing these as footers 
and as their own group and still haven't gotten it right.
 
When I try Word Merge, I get a letter for each person for each submission. In 
the example above, I would get 4 letters rather than one letter with the 
elements listed as shown.
 
I'm very frustrated and unfortunately don't know enough about Access Reports, 
VBA or Word Merge to solve the problem.  I'm so ignorant I may not even be 
asking the questions correctly.  Sigh.  The only thing I have going for me 
right now is that I'm willing to try anything...if only I knew what it was. 
Heavy sigh.  
 
Thanks /g
 
 
From: James LaBorde [mailto:jlaborde@xxxxxxxxx] 
Glenda,

Just curious but is there a reason that you need it as a single field and
not a single record?  A single record would be fairly simple to get with a
Cross-tab query.

James


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