ACC: How to Fax from Microsoft Access Using SendObject Command

ID: Q145787

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Access versions 7.0, 97

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

SUMMARY

This article shows you how to create a macro and a Visual Basic procedure to fax a report from Microsoft Access. The examples assume that you have Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Fax, and a fax modem installed and functioning.

NOTE: If your fax does not appear to have proper formatting, you may want to change your default email editor to Microsoft Word.

This article assumes that you are familiar with Visual Basic for Applications and with creating Microsoft Access applications using the programming tools provided with Microsoft Access. For more information about Visual Basic for Applications, please refer to your version of the "Building Applications with Microsoft Access" manual.

NOTE: This article explains a technique demonstrated in the sample files, RptSampl.exe (for Microsoft Access for Windows 95 version 7.0) and RptSmp97.exe (for Microsoft Access 97). For information about how to obtain these sample files, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q145777 ACC95: Microsoft Access Sample Reports Available in Download Center

Q175072 ACC97: Microsoft Access 97 Sample Reports Available in Download Center

MORE INFORMATION

The following examples use the sample database Northwind.mdb to show you how to create a macro and a Visual Basic procedure to fax a report using Microsoft Fax.

NOTE: When you use the SendObject method within Microsoft Access, you must have a messaging application (for example, Microsoft Exchange), that supports the Microsoft Mail Applications Programming Interface or MAPI.

NOTE: If you have an electronic mail application that uses the Vendor Independent Mail (VIM) protocol and have installed and set up the dynamic- link library (Mapivim.dll) that converts MAPI mail messages to the VIM protocol, you can send Microsoft Access objects to the VIM mail application.

CAUTION: Following the steps in this example will modify the sample database Northwind.mdb. You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb file and perform these steps on a copy of the database.

Creating a Macro

This example uses the SendObject action to fax the Catalog report to a single fax number.

Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.

Open the Catalog report in Design view.

On the File menu, click Page Setup.

In the Page Setup box, click the Page tab.

In the Printer For Catalog box, click Use Specific Printer, and then click the Printer button.

In the Name box, select Microsoft Fax, and then click OK.

In the Page Setup box, click OK.

Save the Catalog report and close it.

Create the following macro named SendFax:


       Macro Name   Action
       ------------------------
       SendFax      SendObject

       SendFax Actions
       -------------------------------------------------------------------
       SendObject
          Type         : Report
          Object Name  : Catalog
          Output Format: Rich Text Format
          To:          : [Fax: ###-####] (where ###-#### is the fax number)

Run the macro to fax the report.

Creating a Visual Basic Procedure

This example shows you how to fax the Invoice report to each customer in the Customers table.

Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.

Open the Invoice report in Design view.

On the File menu, click Page Setup.

In the Page Setup Box, click the Page tab.

In the Printer For Invoice box, click Use Specific Printer, and then click the Printer button.

In the Name box, select Microsoft Fax, and then click OK.

In the Page Setup box, click OK.

Set the report's OnOpen property to the following event procedure:


Me.Filter = strInvoiceWhere

Save the report and close it.

In the Database window, click the Modules tab, and then click New.

Type or paste the following code into the module:


       Option Explicit
       Public strInvoiceWhere As String

       ' ****************************************************************
       ' This function will walk through the Customers table and fax the
       ' Invoice report, which is filtered by the CustomerID field using
       ' MS Fax through the MS Access SendObject.
       ' This function assumes the Invoice report has the default
       ' printer set to MS Fax and the MS Fax driver is installed
       ' correctly.
       ' ****************************************************************

       Function FaxInvoices()

       Dim dbsNorthwind As DATABASE
       Dim rstCustomers As Recordset

       Set dbsNorthwind = CurrentDb()
       Set _
       rstCustomers = dbsNorthwind.OpenRecordset("Customers",dbOpenDynaset)

       If MsgBox("Do you want to fax invoices" & Chr(13) & _
          "to all customers using Microsoft Fax?", 4) = 6 Then
          With rstCustomers
          Do Until .EOF
             ' Create the Invoice report Filter used by the Report_Open
             ' event.
             strInvoiceWhere = "[CustomerID] = '" & ![CustomerID] & "'"
              DoCmd.SendObject acReport,"Invoice",acFormatRTF, _
                 "[fax: " & ![fax] & "]", , , , , False
              .MoveNext
          Loop
          End With
       End If
       rstCustomers.Close
       End Function

To test this function, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:

? FaxInvoices()

To improve performance, you can choose to delay faxing until an appropriate time, and you can also change the rendering engine. Rich Text Format (RTF) messages sent to Microsoft Fax need to be rendered. The rendering process uses the application associated with .rtf documents. If, for example, you have installed Microsoft Word 7.0, that is the rendering application. Microsoft WordPad is a smaller and faster application. If you want to send many fax documents, you might consider changing the .rtf association from Microsoft Word 7.0 to WordPad.

To change the association for .rtf documents to WordPad, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type "winfile" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK.

In File Manager, on the File menu, click Associate.

In the Associate box, under File With Extension, type rtf.

Click Browse.

Locate WordPad.Exe in C:\Program Files\Accessories, and then click OK.

Quit File Manager.

To change the time to send a fax, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

Double-click the Mail And Fax icon.

In "The following information services are set up in this profile" box, select Microsoft Fax, and then click Properties.

In the Time To Send box, select Specific Time, type a time in the Time box, and then click OK.

Close the Mail And Fax box.

REFERENCES

For more information about SendObject, search the Help Index for "SendObject Action."

For more information about OutputTo, search the Help Index for "OutputTo."

For more information about FindFirst, search the Help Index for "FindFirst Method."

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbprg IntpOle
Version : WINDOWS:7.0,97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto