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A5 v 5 developer edition

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    A5 v 5 developer edition

    I too am 'salivating' at the forthcoming new release. I believe ODBC or OLE connectivity was mentioned once, so that direct mail merge linking with MS Word can be achieved...I hope so. Yes I know A5 has a v good letter writer, but most of my staff are more used to Word!

    BUT, my main question is, will I still be able to use my A5v4 developer program (including the excellent self installation prog) with v5, or will there be an upgrade requirement and cost here.

    I guess only Selwyn will know the answer to this,but he does know the answer to everthing else so I'm sure I'll get an instant response!!!!

    Very best wishes to all in our exclusive and friendly club

    Jeremy Packman

    #2
    RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

    Jeremy,

    Can't you run a merge into Word now? I believe there is some problem with the latest version of Word because of MS's non support for the Foxpro odbc driver but I certainly have merged data into my (earlier) version of MS Word and do so into WP regularly.

    More generally, version 5 will do something else for those of us who need to massage data in a word processor since it will allow reports to be sent to rich text files which can be opened by any word processor.

    It is a pity that Microsoft's corporate policy is so capricious that it is impossible to rely on their continued support for something so basic as an odbc driver.

    Bill
    Bill Hanigsberg

    Comment


      #3
      RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

      "It is a pity that Microsoft's corporate policy is so capricious that it is impossible to rely on their continued support for something so basic as an odbc driver."

      I agree completely Bill, which is why I've stuck with my "old-fashioned" ascii export routine to run Word merge in our application. It's really so fast and easy and works like a charm. But I think I bamboozled people with my article on www.learn alpha.com which makes it seem inordiately complicated. In any event it hasn't won any converts!

      Finian
      Finian

      Comment


        #4
        RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

        Thank you Finian for that tid-bit of info. Very helpful

        Comment


          #5
          RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

          Correction Finian. You have at least one disciple.

          Bill
          Bill Hanigsberg

          Comment


            #6
            RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

            Dear Finian,

            I wish I had gone for ASCII - always worked great for me in the past. My program is set up to export a one record temporary DBF table for merging to Hot Docs and Word but when I upgraded to Internet Explorer 5/Outlook Express it blew the connection. I also forgot about the limitation to 10 characters for the field names - what a mess! I got around the problem by replacing all the ODBC files in the WindowsSystem directory with the older versions and it works ok but I don't know what other damage I may have done. So will the new version cure this problem or should I think about re-coding for ASCII files? If so can you point me to your article. please.

            Thanks

            Steve Mason (UK)

            Comment


              #7
              RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

              My esport system is similar ... it is based on the export of a single record of info from a set. I concocted a method of combining the details from the one to many invoice browse into a memo field so that they could be exported as part of the one record export. I also have a batch facility whereby you can accumulate records for merging as a group. I thne did a bunch of macros that run when Word starts. These format the test according to user preferences. It's all explaned at www.learn alpha.com. I just wish I had the time to put together a simplified version that reflects our current version, which is modified quite a bit from what is desribed in the article.

              As far as V5 is concerned, Selwyn has said that it will bring a new level of OLE automation, so that will be interesting.

              Finian
              Finian

              Comment


                #8
                RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

                I found a way of working around the mailmerge problem nicely that you folks might find easier than coding. I export to an excel file. Naturally, mailmerge from within Word likes that and once your format the mailmerge in the letter itself, your off. Always export to the same file name and when you open the preformated word document the rest is (almost)automatic.

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: A5 v 5 developer edition

                  An Excel export wouldn't work for us since I needed to include data from the (potentially) unlimited number of invoice lines in the set form. The only way to get that result is with coding.

                  Finian
                  Finian

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