How to display a Word document in Access

[Gkirkup]

How do I display a Word document or PDF document in Access?

 

[theDBguy]

You could try using a web browser control.

 

[Pat Hartman]

How do I display a Word document or PDF document in Access?

Open it? Look at FollowHyperlink

We need more context. Are you asking about displaying the document inside a form?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Open it for what purpose? Display only? Open for editing? Please specify intended action.

Further note: You can ONLY open a PDF document for display unless you have an Adobe product that can open and edit such files. The same is true for Word documents - you need Word to open and edit the document. However, there are "viewers" that allow you to open Word or PDF documents for viewing.

 

[Gkirkup]

I want it to display various Word documents. No editing required. I already know how to display photographs in Access, and that works fine.
I have so far not been able to display .doc or .pdf documents. I have converted a document to jpg which does work but it is very limited and I can only display one page at a time.
The document can be inside a form if that helps. Nothing else would be on the form.
I did Chat GPT the question and it suggested an Acrobat Reader control or a web browser control. I tried both but they require the OLE library which so far I do not have. Is that easy to install?
Thank you! Robert

 

[theDBguy]

I have so far not been able to display .doc or .pdf

I've seen pdf displayed inside a browser control. Have you tried that? Not sure if it will work with a Word doc though, but you could give it a try.

 

[CJ_London]

want it to display various Word documents. No editing required.

So to be quite clear you want to see them on an access form - since ‘want it to display…’ could mean that or it could mean open in word

Word (and excelyou need to convert to a pdf to view on a form in a web browser

This can be done with automation to open the document hidden then save as a pdf

may be different if you are using the new edge browser control.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

From a display viewpoint, here is a question for you. Is it OK if, for the duration of this display, the document is open full-screen or in its own window? And is Word installed on the machines where you want to do this? And are all of the documents available as Word documents? (You had mentioned PDF documents, but was that for option purposes or because you have a mixed bag?)

I ask all that because it is not that hard to open a Word application object, open a specific document in READ-ONLY mode (so you don't have to worry about saving anything), and then closing Word when the user closes the document. I've done this more than once and it is actually relatively easy.

 

[Gkirkup]

Thank you. That sounds good. Read only is all that I want, and the Word doc full screen or in its own window would be quite OK.
Can you tell me how to do that?
Robert

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Here is a sample from another forum that is short, sweet, and to the point.

Solved: Need code to open a WORD document for read only.

Hey gang, I think what I want to do is simple but being a relative newbie, I haven't been successful in doing it myself. I have made a FORM and the FORM has a MULTIPAGE on it. On my MULTIPAGE(s) I have listed different department with their phone numbers, thus creating a little roladex...

www.vbaexpress.com

When the Word document fills the screen, it also "overlays" (and thus hides) Access. When the user clicks the CLOSE button ([X] in upper right corner) then Access is revealed again and at most a mouse click on any control will get its attention again.

 

[Gkirkup]

Doc Man: Thank you so much. I had seen something similar but I found that WordApp needs the Microsoft Word Object Library. I used to have a list of Add-ins, but now the list is empty. I will get the server techs to reinstall the Microsoft add-ins.

Robert

 

[Gasman]

If you have Word on the computers, then you just add the libary in Tools/references?
That link is actually using late binding anyway, so you do not even need to do that, but you do have to have Word on the computer?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I used to have a list of Add-ins, but now the list is empty. I will get the server techs to reinstall the Microsoft add-ins.

The trick is that those add-ins usually include "translators" that allow your app to understand another app's creations. Which is WHY you need the Word library to open app objects, and there is a "display-only" translator (that is smaller - sometimes called "lightweight" - that knows how to read and display something but it cannot do anything else. Most web browsers, for example, bring along as part of their baggage an Adobe Reader app or an Adobe web translator app.

If YOU are removing add-ins, stop and take note of the usefulness of such things. If your IT staff (server techs) are doing it, you might need to let them know you will need those things for document display/translation services.

 

[MsAccessNL]

You can show a word document in an Ole object control. There are posts about this being a bad idea, but a client of mine is working with iit for several years now, without problems. May be the control gave problems in the older Access versions?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Did you try the FollowHyperlink method? The benefit of that code is that it allows Windows to select the program to use to display the file. Every other method requires that you open the document using the correct program. Here it is in context.

Private Sub txtViewAuditDoc_Click()
On Error GoTo Proc_Err
    If Me.txtViewAuditDoc & "" = "" Then
        MsgBox "There is no document link.  Please add one on the Audit Parms form.", vbOKOnly + vbInformation
    Else
        Application.FollowHyperlink Me.txtViewAuditDoc, , True
    End If
Proc_Exit:
    Exit Sub
Proc_Err:
    Select Case Err.Number
        Case 7971
            Resume Proc_Exit
        Case Else
            MsgBox Err.Number & "--" & Err.Description, vbCritical
            Resume Proc_Exit
    End Select
End Sub