Word To HTML To Access (XP)

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I have several word documents (that are set up as Word Tables) that have seven columns. Six columns contain text/numeric data, and the seventh contain substantial notes (many paragraphs).

We are getting out of the Word mode and into database mode and do not want to lose the history. We were able to successfully import ALL the data from the documents by saving the word document as html, and then importing the html document. Great! Only problem is the html document lost of the formatting, specifically character returns. AAAAHHHHH! ! !

Is there a way of importing text into an Access memo field and not lose the carriage returns? (not even going to try to capture/save the bold, underline etc.

Thanks in advance for ideas.

Ken

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In a word, No. I can understand your using HTML to convert the contents, but memo fields are essentially just big text fields that aren’t physically located in the table. You can certainly enter line breaks into a memo field, but regardless of what it looks like, HTML is just text with a lot of tags in it for formatting and display. All you’ll get in the memo field is the text, since the line breaks are going to be part of the formatting.

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Charlotte,

Thanks once again. I shall assign them punishwork, just like in school, and have them practice:

“Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,I shall never use Word as a database,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,I shall never use Word as a database, I shall never use Word as a database,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,I shall never use Word as a database, I shall never use Word as a database,I shall never use Word as a database, I shall never use Word as a database”

until they “get it”.

FYI – I went ahead and imported it via HTML, and they will use today as their start off with Access, and then clean up the memos on as as needed basis.

thanks,

Ken

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Charlotte,

Thanks once again. I shall assign them punishwork, just like in school, and have them practice:

“Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,I shall never use Word as a database,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,I shall never use Word as a database, I shall never use Word as a database,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab, Cntrl-V,Cntrl-C, Alt-Tab,I shall never use Word as a database, I shall never use Word as a database,I shall never use Word as a database, I shall never use Word as a database”

until they “get it”.

FYI – I went ahead and imported it via HTML, and they will use today as their start off with Access, and then clean up the memos on as as needed basis.

thanks,

Ken

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In a word, No. I can understand your using HTML to convert the contents, but memo fields are essentially just big text fields that aren’t physically located in the table. You can certainly enter line breaks into a memo field, but regardless of what it looks like, HTML is just text with a lot of tags in it for formatting and display. All you’ll get in the memo field is the text, since the line breaks are going to be part of the formatting.

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Hi Ken

Just had a play and seems to work. This may be quite a lot of work for you but I copied the table from word to Excel and then imported the workbook into Access. The only problem was that I had a few paragraphs (double carriage return) and it seemed to think it was a new record. When I imported it saw it immediately as a memo field.

I hope this gives you a new avenue to approach.

Jerry

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Jerry,

thanks for you help. Unfortunately, some of their notes exceeded what Excel can handle in a single cell. So I just wrote this off as a learning experience, and hope they use Access, or Excel, instead of Word for these types of applications in the future.

We did play with replacing the carriage returns with a series of characters (i.e. “uuuuuuu” in Word) and then replacing the string with a carriage return, but too proved cumbersome, and slow.

Some folks think that because they have something in their computer, they have “automated” their office. Funny how sometimes, all this “automation” results in more work instead of less. On a positive note, at least they are not afraid of the technology and are pushing their envelops and trying to improve. Ya gotta love it!

Ken

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Jerry,

thanks for you help. Unfortunately, some of their notes exceeded what Excel can handle in a single cell. So I just wrote this off as a learning experience, and hope they use Access, or Excel, instead of Word for these types of applications in the future.

We did play with replacing the carriage returns with a series of characters (i.e. “uuuuuuu” in Word) and then replacing the string with a carriage return, but too proved cumbersome, and slow.

Some folks think that because they have something in their computer, they have “automated” their office. Funny how sometimes, all this “automation” results in more work instead of less. On a positive note, at least they are not afraid of the technology and are pushing their envelops and trying to improve. Ya gotta love it!

Ken

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Hi Ken

Just had a play and seems to work. This may be quite a lot of work for you but I copied the table from word to Excel and then imported the workbook into Access. The only problem was that I had a few paragraphs (double carriage return) and it seemed to think it was a new record. When I imported it saw it immediately as a memo field.

I hope this gives you a new avenue to approach.

Jerry

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