[SOLVED] How do I make Access poop out data from cells to pre-formatted text?

Aldo

Does anyone here have any experience with Microsoft Access? I'm trying to make it poop out data from cells in a bit of text similar to how you can add fields in a Word document. What I want to make is

[url={A2}][b]{B2}[/b][/url]
Platform: {C2}
Description: {D2}
Verdict: {E2}
Status: {F2}

And have it create that bit of text for every line in the database.

So far I haven't been able to figure out whether that's even possible and if I were to do it with Excel (ie: ditch Access) whether I could make it easy to select only certain categories (ex: only poop out entries that have "Platform: in-browser")

I've tried searching on Google, but I am not familiar with the lingo of Access, so I don't know what I'm searching for.

Any help is appreciated, even if it's just words I should Google for. If you believe that Access or Excel are worthless for this project than please point me to other options.

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additional info:
- The database I'm working with is available as a HTM table here
- I wanted to use Access initially because it is the only MS Office software I am unfamiliar with, if I can manage this whole database using this software I can actually show that I have some experience with it.
- The challenge for me is to make it easier to add new entries and copy the pre-formatted text into my Penny-Arcade thread. In the future I want to be able to do the same on a full-blown website.
- After I have this working properly I want to be able to spend more time on the actual review & journalism side of this project and less on the logistic back-end.

ShadowThomas

I'm at work so i'm not able to go to dropbox. But if i'm understanding correctly you just want whatever you're entering into a field to show up in like the field names in word (e.g. typing "C2" will change to "{C2}"). If so, just make the format property for the field in Design View

{@ @}

without that space in the middle. Add more @ if it's more than two characters.

It'll then convert whatever you type in to that format. Just make sure you keep the formatting if you export it out of access.

If you're trying to export only certain data from that table, add in a filter before you export and select only what you want shown.

Let me know if I got that completely wrong...

Aldo

ShadowThomas wrote: »

I'm at work so i'm not able to go to dropbox. But if i'm understanding correctly you just want whatever you're entering into a field to show up in like the field names in word (e.g. typing "C2" will change to "{C2}"). If so, just make the format property for the field in Design View

{@ @}

without that space in the middle. Add more @ if it's more than two characters.

It'll then convert whatever you type in to that format. Just make sure you keep the formatting if you export it out of access.

If you're trying to export only certain data from that table, add in a filter before you export and select only what you want shown.

Let me know if I got that completely wrong...

I ... think that's what I mean, only wouldn't that mean I'd have to manually input all the fields in a Word document for every bit of data I want to display?

Also, the description field is longer and shorter for every entry, how could I get that to work?

ShadowThomas

@Aldo
I got home and took a look at the table and I think I did get what you were saying completely wrong.

You're not pushing the Access data out to Word, but pulling Access's data into Word. You should be able to select the Access table as the data source in Word and then add the fields to display there (they should have the same name as the field names).

It'll probably be easier just to make a report in Access to do the same thing though. Depending on your version of Office, you should be able to just click on your table and then Create Report and it'll set up your report automatically for you. You can then re-arrange it or add text in Design or Layout view.

Aldo

OK, in Word I can make the whole database show up in a table, which is not better than what I've currently got as my database anyway.

In Excel I can be a little creative and make it output individual cells to make it look like this

Which looks like this on the PA forums.

4th Coming, The
Genre: MMO RPG
Platform: Client
Status: F2P
Description: An extremely dated RPG with hideous graphics, slow and forgiving gameplay. The original is from way back in the 20th century and - unless you're only used to old games you're better off with any other game
Avoid?: It's cool, man

However, I need multiple rows of cells for this, so I'd have to do some creative work with cells to make it work smoothly

Trying to use Access' report generator results in either the same table I can make in Word or Excel or in a nice form.


Now neither one of these is perfect, the former needs a lot of tweaking to the point where it is just as easy to forego the whole database idea and just type out everything in a .txt file (I did it like this for ages), the latter would be a lot more useful were I to work with a real website as all I'd have to do is figure out how to make that object appear on there and then generate a a few lists with all the titles for people to click on. Unfortunately a website is kind of a few steps too far right now.

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I hope this kinda clarifies what hurdles I'm facing. If there's a way to get full control of the Access output form where I can make it so that I can just copy/paste plain text with all the information from the database filled out I would have the most flexibility.

ShadowThomas

I'm going off of Office 2010, let me know if these options aren't available.

1. In Access click on your Table, then click on External Data on the Ribbon.
2. Click on the Word Merge button
3. Either link to an existing document or create a new one
-It'll then open Word and have the Mail Merge wizard open
4. Go to Step 4 and click on More Items
5. Insert the fields that you want it to display in the correct order (make sure it's on Database Fields) and then close the Insert Merge Field window.
6. Add in whatever formatting or words you want to appear around the fields
7. Click on Preview Your Letters
8. You should see it in the format you're looking for. Use the Record Navigators in the Mailings ribbon to get to each game/review.


If you don't have that Word Merge option, go to Word and start the mail merge wizard and select your database as the datasource.

Aldo

ShadowThomas wrote: »

I'm going off of Office 2010, let me know if these options aren't available.

1. In Access click on your Table, then click on External Data on the Ribbon.
2. Click on the Word Merge button
3. Either link to an existing document or create a new one
-It'll then open Word and have the Mail Merge wizard open
4. Go to Step 4 and click on More Items
5. Insert the fields that you want it to display in the correct order (make sure it's on Database Fields) and then close the Insert Merge Field window.
6. Add in whatever formatting or words you want to appear around the fields
7. Click on Preview Your Letters
8. You should see it in the format you're looking for. Use the Record Navigators in the Mailings ribbon to get to each game/review.


If you don't have that Word Merge option, go to Word and start the mail merge wizard and select your database as the datasource.

Amazing, that results in exactly what I needed. :O Thanks so much!