Using Microsoft Access and Word Mail Merge with Synapse

Well put. We are having a good start. A lot can be done with this combination.

I used one of my old database file to do this and didn't change all the buttons, the code of thatexit button was to shut down the databae. You can just delete it from design view, no use of this button here.

Question for Graham: do you think you can provide your database structural/relationship information? I can guess many of them by looking at the field names and values, but whould be easier if this is available.

Would be better ifthe Rich Textbox controlis fully compatible with Blob field, meaning you can also edit. Maybe there is a third party one out there, we haven't looked hard enough.

I have the same problem. I'm supposed to put some error handling codes in there. But I am not a programmer, so I never bothered looking into solving that and making it perfect.

I must be dozing off when writing that. For your purpose, you absolutely don't need Mail Merge. Using MS Access's own report is much easier and you won't get those error messages due to my buggy Mail Merge solution. I use Mail Merge for consult letters because I like to use Word's instant spell check. Another reason I have to use Office 2003 instead of 2007 is that I have an old verison Stedman's Medical Spellchecker which works with old Office suitesbut doesn't work for 2007.

I only use it occasionally now when the receptionist needs to print a consult that wasn't saved in PDF.

If all you need is a referral form, you may not need Word, you can just create a report in Access and pull the information from the database

I see. Then you can use exactly the same method we had discussed and follow the steps that I outline in the first post: pull data from the database, use mailmerge to generate a word file and save to your patient folder.

Alternatively, you can use Access report and print out as a PDF file (using PDF factory or acrobat pro) to save in your patient folder, since the mailmerge codes I posted here is still a little buggy and sometimes you need to click more than once to make it work. This will probably make things easier for you.