New Access Tip: Shell Function

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11/25/2014 7:58:29 AM
New Access Tip: Shell Function
By Richard Rost

In this Microsoft Access tip I'm going to show you how to use the SHELL function to open external programs (like Word, Excel, Acrobat, etc.) and load up files (documents, sheets, PDFs, etc.) to display.

TIP: MICROSOFT ACCESS SHELL FUNCTION

I cover this topic in a lot more depth in my new Microsoft Access Open Other Programs Seminar.

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New Access Tip Shell Function Comment from abedkhan @ 2/15/2015

Useful thing Who Does not know Visual basic Application Programming. Thank you Very Much...

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New Access Tip Shell Function Comment from Marc S @ 12/17/2014

BINGO that was is it not the full path. Thank you, seasons greetings.

Reply from Alex Hedley:

Glad you got it working :)

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New Access Tip Shell Function Comment from Marc S @ 12/16/2014

When I try shell function with acroRD32.exe I keep getting "Microsoft Visual Basic-Run-time error 53-File not found" error. I can get shell to work with notepad.exe but not with adobe. Sounds like a missing dll according to a quick internet search but which one.
Any ideas or leads on fixing this error ?
Otherwise this shell thing would be great if it worked for me.
Thank you
M

Reply from Alex Hedley:

Are you quoting the full path of where Adobe is? If there are spaces it can have trouble.

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New Access Tip Shell Function Comment from Marc S @ 12/4/2014

Hello,
I have two related questions.

1. Is there a way to tell the external program to open to a specified page in the document. (I would like Adobe to open a pdf to page x)

2. Is there a way to send an external file (pdf) directly to the printer AND have the number of copies match a number field from access ? (for example print 28 copies of this worksheet with 28 being the number of students in a class)

Good stuff Richard.
Marc

Reply from Richard Rost:

1. It depends on the program. Adobe Acrobat WILL accept a command-line parameter for the page number following the /A switch. I believe it's something like

ACRORD32.EXE MyFile.PDF /A PAGE=7

That should open MyFile.PDF to page 7. See this document for details.

2. You can send direct to the default printer very easily. Just use the NORMAL option instead of the PREVIEW option when opening a report. The number of copies could be controlled with a FOR NEXT loop in your button's VBA code. So the answer to your question is "yes, with a little programming."

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