How to fax from Microsoft Access by using the SendObject command in Access 2000

This article shows you how to create a macro and a Visual Basic procedure to fax a report from Microsoft Access. The examples assume that you have Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Fax, and a fax modem installed and that they are functioning.

Outlook Email Security

The following code may not work properly if you have installed the Outlook E-mail Security Update. For additional information about this update, please see one of the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, depending on which version of Outlook you have: If your fax does not appear to have proper formatting, you may want to change your default e-mail editor to Microsoft Word. For more information about the Outlook 2002 e-mail security features and how those features can affect custom solutions, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Using the SendObject Method

The following examples use the sample database Northwind.mdb to show you how to create a macro and a Visual Basic procedure to fax a report using Microsoft Fax. However, you can also use an Access project (.adp) file for faxing information.

When you use the SendObject method within Microsoft Access, you must have a messaging application (for example, Microsoft Outlook), that supports the Microsoft Mail Applications Programming Interface or MAPI.

If Outlook is running at the time you attempt to run the macro or code, you may receive an message similar to: If you see this message, close Outlook and run the code again.

If you have an electronic mail application that uses the Vendor Independent Mail (VIM) protocol and have installed and set up the dynamic-link library (Mapivim.dll) that converts MAPI mail messages to the VIM protocol, you can send Microsoft Access objects to the VIM mail application.

CAUTION: If you follow the steps in this example, you modify the sample database Northwind.mdb. You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb file and follow these steps on a copy of the database.

Creating a Macro

This example uses the SendObject action to fax the Catalog report to a single fax number.

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Open the Catalog report in Design view.
3. On the File menu, click Page Setup.
4. In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Page tab.
5. In the Printer for Catalog option group, click Use Specific Printer, and then click the Printer button.
6. In the Name list, select Microsoft Fax, and then click OK.
7. In the Page Setup dialog box, click OK.
8. Save the Catalog report and close it.
9. Create the following macro named SendFax:

       Macro Name   Action
       ------------------------
       SendFax      SendObject
   
       Action Arguments
       ----------------------------------------------------------------
       Object Type: Report
       Object Name: Catalog
       Output Format: Rich Text Format
       To: [Fax: +1 (###) ###-####] (where (###) ###-#### is the fax number)
   					

   NOTE: You do not need to include the hyphen "-" for this to work.
   
   
10. Run the macro to fax the report.

Creating a Visual Basic Procedure

NOTE: The sample code in this article uses Microsoft Data Access Objects. For this code to run properly, you must reference the Microsoft DAO 3.6 Object Library. To do so, click References on the Tools menu in the Visual Basic Editor, and make sure that the Microsoft DAO 3.6 Object Library check box is selected.

This example shows you how to fax the Invoice report to each customer in the Customers table.

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. Open the Invoice report in Design view.
3. On the File menu, click Page Setup.
4. In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Page tab.
5. In the Printer For Invoice option group, click Use Specific Printer, and then click the Printer button.
6. In the Name list, select Microsoft Fax, and then click OK.
7. In the Page Setup dialog box, click OK.
8. Set the OnOpen property of the report to the following event procedure:

   Me.Filter = strInvoiceWhere
   					

9. Save the report and close it.
10. In the Database window, click Modules, and then click New.
11. Type or paste the following code into the module.NOTE: If you plan to change this example and place the code behind a form, leave the line "Public strInvoiceWhere As String" in a standard module.

    Option Explicit
    
    Public strInvoiceWhere As String
    '****************************************************************
    'This function will walk through the Customers table and fax the
    'Invoice report, which is filtered by the CustomerID field using
    'MS Fax through the MS Access SendObject.
    '
    'This function assumes the Invoice report has the default printer
    'set to MS Fax and the MS Fax driver is installed correctly.
    '****************************************************************
    Function FaxInvoices()
        Dim dbsNorthwind As DAO.Database
        Dim rstCustomers As DAO.Recordset
    
        Set dbsNorthwind = CurrentDb()
        Set rstCustomers = dbsNorthwind.OpenRecordset("Customers", _
            dbOpenDynaset)
    
        If MsgBox("Do you want to fax invoices" & Chr(13) & _
            "to all customers using Microsoft Fax?", 4) = 6 Then
            With rstCustomers
                Do Until .EOF
                    'Create the Invoice report Filter
                    'used by the Report_Open event.
                    strInvoiceWhere = "[CustomerID] = '" & ![CustomerID] & "'"
                    DoCmd.SendObject acReport, "Invoice", acFormatRTF, _
                        "[fax: " & ![Fax] & "]", , , , , False
                    .MoveNext
                Loop
            End With
        End If
    
        rstCustomers.Close
    End Function
    					

12. To test this function, type the following line in the Immediate window, and then press ENTER:

    ? FaxInvoices()
    					

To improve performance, you can choose to delay faxing until an appropriate time, and you can also change the rendering engine. Rich Text Format (RTF) messages sent to Microsoft Fax need to be rendered. The rendering process uses the application associated with .rtf documents. If, for example, you have installed Microsoft Word 2000, that is the rendering application. Microsoft WordPad is a smaller and faster application. If you want to send many fax documents, you might consider changing the .rtf association from Microsoft Word 2000 to WordPad.

To change the association for .rtf documents to WordPad, follow these steps:

1. Click Start and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type Winfile, and then click OK.
3. In File Manager, on the File menu, click Associate.
4. In the Associate dialog box, under Files with Extension, type rtf.
5. Click Browse
6. Locate WordPad.Exe in C:\Program Files\Accessories, and then click OK.
7. Quit File Manager.

To change the time to send a fax, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Mail And Fax icon.
3. In The following information services are set up in this profile box, select Microsoft Fax, and then click Properties.
4. In the Time to Send box, select Specific Time, type a time in the Time box, and then click OK.
5. Close the Mail And Fax box.

For a Microsoft Access 2002 version of this article, see 299016.
For more information about how other Microsoft Office products may be affected by the Outlook E-mail Security Update, please see one of the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, depending on which version of Outlook you have: For more information about SendObject, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help on the Help menu, type SendObject action in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

For more information about OutputTo, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help on the Help menu, type OutputTo in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

For more information about FindFirst, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help on the Help menu, type FindFirst Method in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

This article explains a technique demonstrated in the sample file RptSmp00.exe.

For additional information about how to obtain this sample file, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: