MS Access Replacements?

August 4, 2006 10:56 AM

I am wondering what the (free/cheap) options for uniting a database to templates for printing. Specifically I am worried about the ease of populating these templates, and how I could use regular sql queries to produce, for example, three invoices/page with addresses in the proper location for envelopes.

Kexi does not seem to be a viable option. I am thinking something with .pdfs might do the trick. Feel free to suggest solutions that involve some scripting. MSAccess is killing me.

posted by shownomercy to Technology (4 answers total)

If you can do LaTeX, I've used perl to populate printable forms before.

Have you looked into using Word's 'mail merge' function?
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:10 AM on August 4, 2006

I've never used it, but I think Crystal Reports is the standard for such jobs. But at $200 it may not meet your definition of cheap.
posted by sbutler at 11:44 AM on August 4, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, sonofsamiam. I can't do LaTeX but the second step sounds quite appealing, I just may learn this LaTeX.

Sbutler, thanks as well. I'll try to find someone with experience with this, because that's certainly affordable--if it works.
posted by shownomercy at 1:33 PM on August 4, 2006

You're looking for the 3rd item in an Application Designer system: DBMS, Screen/Forms Runner, Report Writer.

There are a number of them out there; which one would be best for you depends a lot on the things around the outside of your database.
posted by baylink at 3:10 PM on August 4, 2006