"jmar" <jmarz***@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1159109036.430820.89490@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I am updating a VB4.0 quote generation program to VB.net.  The old
> program takes user inputs, performs calculations, saves the data to
> Access databases and uses Crystal Reports 5.0 to generate a quote.  A
> while back users obviously wanted to be able to edit/e-mail  the quote
> (these ancient Cyrstal 5.0 reports don't allow PDF creation) so I
> modified the old VB4.0 code to allow users to save the Crystal Report
> as Word document which they can then edit/e-mail from Word.  This works
> OK but there are two big downfalls:  1) the initial report data is
> saved in the database and the modifications made in Word are not so you
> end up with database data that isn't accurate  2)  The conversion of
> the Crystal Report to Word is clunky - the Word document that is
> generated is touchy when it comes to editing - blocks of data move in
> an unpredictable fashion when data is added.
>
> As I upgrade this program to VB.net, I am trying to clean up this whole
> issue.  Users have loved the ability to edit/e-mail so I'm thinking the
> way to go in VB.net is to forego storing in databases and simply have
> my application fill in a Word Template with the quote data.  Instead of
> a database with quote data, they end up with a collection of Word
> Documents, each representing an individual quote.
>
> I need some input - feel free to offer your comments/suggestions on any
> or all of the following:
> 1)  Is this a good idea?  Am I overlooking an advantage to the database
> method?
> 2)  Does anyone have any links/samples that show me how to easily fill
> a Word Template from VB.Net 2003?
> 3) Can I set up the Bill of Material part of my template such that if a
> user changes the cost of a line item the TOTAL is changed at the
> bottom?  If so, how?
> 4) Has anyone who has done this before have any words of
> wisdom/experiences they could share as to the difficulty/issues they
> faced?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help...
> Jmar
>

> The feature you are looking for in Word is called "fields" (on the insert
> menu).  To access them, you need to be programming with the Word object
> model (by making a reference from VS.NET to the COM Word Object Library).
>
> While I haven't programmed against fields in Word, I would suspect you would
> access specific fields via a "fields" property of the document object.
>
> Yes, you can have a field set up that will update if other fields on the
> form change, BUT (if memory serves) normally, you have to press F9 in Word
> after making a change to a field for the rest of the fields to update. But,
> you could easily add a nice (easy to see) button to your Word template that
> says something like "Click Me After Making Changes To Update Your Form".
>
>
>
> "jmar" <jmarz***@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1159109036.430820.89490@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> >I am updating a VB4.0 quote generation program to VB.net.  The old
> > program takes user inputs, performs calculations, saves the data to
> > Access databases and uses Crystal Reports 5.0 to generate a quote.  A
> > while back users obviously wanted to be able to edit/e-mail  the quote
> > (these ancient Cyrstal 5.0 reports don't allow PDF creation) so I
> > modified the old VB4.0 code to allow users to save the Crystal Report
> > as Word document which they can then edit/e-mail from Word.  This works
> > OK but there are two big downfalls:  1) the initial report data is
> > saved in the database and the modifications made in Word are not so you
> > end up with database data that isn't accurate  2)  The conversion of
> > the Crystal Report to Word is clunky - the Word document that is
> > generated is touchy when it comes to editing - blocks of data move in
> > an unpredictable fashion when data is added.
> >
> > As I upgrade this program to VB.net, I am trying to clean up this whole
> > issue.  Users have loved the ability to edit/e-mail so I'm thinking the
> > way to go in VB.net is to forego storing in databases and simply have
> > my application fill in a Word Template with the quote data.  Instead of
> > a database with quote data, they end up with a collection of Word
> > Documents, each representing an individual quote.
> >
> > I need some input - feel free to offer your comments/suggestions on any
> > or all of the following:
> > 1)  Is this a good idea?  Am I overlooking an advantage to the database
> > method?
> > 2)  Does anyone have any links/samples that show me how to easily fill
> > a Word Template from VB.Net 2003?
> > 3) Can I set up the Bill of Material part of my template such that if a
> > user changes the cost of a line item the TOTAL is changed at the
> > bottom?  If so, how?
> > 4) Has anyone who has done this before have any words of
> > wisdom/experiences they could share as to the difficulty/issues they
> > faced?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any help...
> > Jmar
> >