Sending Reports by Microsoft Exchange and Outlook
If you have installed the Microsoft Exchange client (Inbox) along with the Microsoft Outlook messaging application, you can send a report to others as an attachment to a Microsoft Mail or other Microsoft Exchange message. Exchange lets you send the report output as a fax, through CompuServe mail, Internet Mail, Microsoft Network mail, or through any other messaging system that you have configured to work with Microsoft Exchange. To send a report by Microsoft Exchange, follow these steps:
Note
A full discussion of Microsoft Exchange is beyond the scope of this book. Search the Windows online Help for more information about Microsoft Exchange.
Note
You can also publish your reports as HTML pages to make them available to Internet users or your company's intranet users. Part IV of this book describes using HTML in Access.
1. | 
 In Print Preview mode, open the report that you want to send. (You do not need to have Microsoft Mail or other Exchange client software running when you create the message, although it must be installed and correctly configured.) You can also select the report that you want to send in the Reports tab of the Database window. |
2. | Choose File, Send to display the Send dialog (see Figure 15.22). Figure 15.22. Choosing the format for the Microsoft Exchange attachment.
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3. | In the Select Format list box (refer to Figure 15.22), select the format in which you want to send the report file. This example sends the Products on Hand by Category report in Microsoft Excel 97 (.xls) format. |
4. | Click OK to create the message. A progress-reporting dialog appears while Access creates the Excel worksheet (.xls) file. When the process is complete, Microsoft Exchange's Choose Profile dialog appears (see Figure 15.23). Figure 15.23. Choosing the Microsoft Outlook profile for sending a report as a mail attachment.
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5. | In the Profile Name drop-down list box, select the profile name that you want to use for this message, and then click OK. (Refer to Exchange's online Help for information about Exchange's profiles.) The Microsoft Exchange's New Message window now appears (see Figure 15.24). |
6. | Enter the recipients' names, a subject, and an optional transmittal message, as shown in Figure 15.24. Click the Send button (the leftmost button of the upper toolbar) to send the message with the attached report file (see Figure 15.25). |
Note
Depending on your report's formatting, some of the field values might not appear in an Excel worksheet file. For example, the subtotals for the Values fields (as well as both percentage fields) are missing. However, you can easily reconstruct these fields in Excel. Access cannot incorporate subreports that are contained in reports printed to files of any of the three available formats. You must provide individual columns for subtotals and other section footers to ensure that the values appear in an .xls file.
Figure 15.24. Completing the Microsoft Outlook message.
Figure 15.25. The appearance of the report attachment in Microsoft Excel 97.
