Complex Report - Change Sequence of Records

[Claude55]

Here's a challenging problem, hope someone has some ideas to solve. I have a contractor's bid generation application. Based on tasks to be done, their frequency and materials used, several subreports need to be optionally included in the Bid. Ideally the Bid would be one report so page numbering could occur. There are also various documents that need to be included in the (Bid) report such as MSD's, Insurance Info, Bonding Info, etc. I want the user to be able to check off all the things he needs to print and set the sequence, or order, that each of these items will be printed. This is a tall order. It gets worse, as the ideal solution would also allow these documents to be something other than a text or memo field, since it would be nice to have some decent formatting such as bold, underline, etc.

If this is too tall and order, how close could I come. Say I settled for memo fields to contain the "documents", then setting the sequence would be trivial--but then how do I turn on or off the various sub-reports and is there any way place them in the sequence. Or, do I have to settle for printing all the subreports in a fixed order at the beginning or end (appendix) of the report?

Bonus question would be: How do we create a table of contents for this mess?

Do I need Crystal Reports?

 

[raskew]

Claude-

You're not asking for a tip to help you get beyond some hangup that's tying you up, you're asking for someone to develop your application.

My thinking is your question goes beyond the scope of what these forums can give you.

 

[Claude55]

No, I was asking for an opinion--if someone has a technique for doing this that can be described in general terms, or if this is too complex to do easily in Access, then I wonder if someone has had some experience with Crystal Reports.