Ms Office Tune Up

After you finish your report, you might want to share its contents with other people. You can simply print the report and distribute hard copies, but that seems a bit old fashioned nowadays (not to mention environmentally unfriendly). To distribute an electronic version of the report, Access gives you a number of options (in each case, you need to display the report before proceeding):

• If your readers can use an Access database in a shared network location, choose External Data, More (in the Export group), Access Database, choose the remote data­base, and then click OK.
• If your readers have access to a SharePoint site, choose External Data, Move to SharePoint.
• To convert your report to the RTF file format that can then be viewed in Word, choose External Data, Word (in the Export group), choose a location, and then click OK.
• To convert your report to a Web page, choose External Data, More (in the Export group), HTML Document, choose a location, and then click OK.

The RTF and HTML file formats are useful if your readers don’t have Access and so can’t view your report in its native format. Unfortunately, some reports don’t convert to these formats perfectly, so your report might not look exactly the way you set it up. If you want to ensure report fidelity, you can convert the report to the Snapshot file format and then ask your readers to view the snapshot file using the Microsoft Snapshot Viewer program, which shows the report exactly as you configured it in Access.

Here are the steps to follow to convert your report into a snapshot file:

1. Display the report in Report view.
2. Choose External Data, More (in the Export group), Snapshot Viewer. Access displays the Export – Snapshot Viewer dialog box.
3. Use the File Name text box or the Browse button to choose a location for the snap­shot file.
4. If you have the Snapshot Viewer program installed and you want to open the snapshot file in the program after the conversion is complete, click to activate the Open the Destination File after the Export Operation is Complete check box.
5. Click OK. Access converts the report to a snapshot file.
6. Click Close.

With the snapshot file created, you can now distribute it on the network or as an email attachment. For the latter, note that Access gives you a more direct way to email a report snapshot:

1. Display the report in Report view.
2. Choose Office, E-mail. Access displays the Send Object As dialog box.
3. In the Select Output Format list, click Snapshot Format.
4. Click OK. Access converts the report to the snapshot file, and then it opens a new Outlook message window with the file attached.
5. Fill out the message details (recipient address, subject, and so on).
6. Click Send.

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