Best Practices (Forms/Letters)

I have a rather large number of already existing forms and letters (in paper
format) that I need to recreate in Reporting Services. After reading a few
posts with regards to formatting etc I have noted that several recommend not
using Text Boxes/Labels but rather tables.
As I'm very new to RS could somebody please advise as to the best possible
way to go about creating these.
Often there is a few lines of text then something that needs to be populated
from the database then another few lines of text etc.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 18:03:02 -0700, "Nat Johnson"
<NatJohnson@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>I have a rather large number of already existing forms and letters (in paper
>format) that I need to recreate in Reporting Services. After reading a few
>posts with regards to formatting etc I have noted that several recommend not
>using Text Boxes/Labels but rather tables.
>As I'm very new to RS could somebody please advise as to the best possible
>way to go about creating these.
>Often there is a few lines of text then something that needs to be populated
>from the database then another few lines of text etc.
>Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
>
Nat,
Can you explain more about what you are trying to do (ignoring what
the appropriate software might or might not be).
On the face of it, I suspect that Reporting Services may not be the
optimal solution. But I would prefer to better understand your
objective. Forms, for example, in my terminology are used to collect
data from users. I assume that is not part of your aim?
Andrew Watt
MVP - InfoPath|||The company I work for are creating an application which includes an SQL
database. I have to use RS for the reports that are required. Most of the
reports are the traditional style (eg lineflow looking) but others are
letters or forms that the system will automatically print out if a certain
condition is met.
The forms that will be printed will have parts that will be populated from
the database. The web team for the project are creating the online forms. I
have to make my forms similar to theirs for printing out as once the parts
are populated from db they need to be printed so a user can take them to a
site for hand completion.
Most of the letters that need to be printed out need to get data from the
db. And will be automatically printed by the system when a condition is met.
The normal reports that need to be created are not the problem. My question
really relates to the forms and letters and the formatting of these.
Let me know if this helps you anymore or not.
cheers
Nat
"Andrew Watt [MVP - InfoPath]" wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 18:03:02 -0700, "Nat Johnson"
> <NatJohnson@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >I have a rather large number of already existing forms and letters (in paper
> >format) that I need to recreate in Reporting Services. After reading a few
> >posts with regards to formatting etc I have noted that several recommend not
> >using Text Boxes/Labels but rather tables.
> >
> >As I'm very new to RS could somebody please advise as to the best possible
> >way to go about creating these.
> >
> >Often there is a few lines of text then something that needs to be populated
> >from the database then another few lines of text etc.
> >
> >Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> Nat,
> Can you explain more about what you are trying to do (ignoring what
> the appropriate software might or might not be).
> On the face of it, I suspect that Reporting Services may not be the
> optimal solution. But I would prefer to better understand your
> objective. Forms, for example, in my terminology are used to collect
> data from users. I assume that is not part of your aim?
> Andrew Watt
> MVP - InfoPath
>|||You should be able to render to PDF and print the PDF documents.
If the documents are to be completed by hand that ought to work for
you.
Almost certainly there will be some tweaking involved to get the
appearance that everybody is happy with.
Andrew Watt
MVP - InfoPath
On Mon, 4 Apr 2005 13:05:03 -0700, "Nat Johnson"
<NatJohnson@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>The company I work for are creating an application which includes an SQL
>database. I have to use RS for the reports that are required. Most of the
>reports are the traditional style (eg lineflow looking) but others are
>letters or forms that the system will automatically print out if a certain
>condition is met.
>The forms that will be printed will have parts that will be populated from
>the database. The web team for the project are creating the online forms. I
>have to make my forms similar to theirs for printing out as once the parts
>are populated from db they need to be printed so a user can take them to a
>site for hand completion.
>Most of the letters that need to be printed out need to get data from the
>db. And will be automatically printed by the system when a condition is met.
>The normal reports that need to be created are not the problem. My question
>really relates to the forms and letters and the formatting of these.
>Let me know if this helps you anymore or not.
>cheers
>Nat
>"Andrew Watt [MVP - InfoPath]" wrote:
>> On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 18:03:02 -0700, "Nat Johnson"
>> <NatJohnson@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>> >I have a rather large number of already existing forms and letters (in paper
>> >format) that I need to recreate in Reporting Services. After reading a few
>> >posts with regards to formatting etc I have noted that several recommend not
>> >using Text Boxes/Labels but rather tables.
>> >
>> >As I'm very new to RS could somebody please advise as to the best possible
>> >way to go about creating these.
>> >
>> >Often there is a few lines of text then something that needs to be populated
>> >from the database then another few lines of text etc.
>> >
>> >Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
>> >
>> Nat,
>> Can you explain more about what you are trying to do (ignoring what
>> the appropriate software might or might not be).
>> On the face of it, I suspect that Reporting Services may not be the
>> optimal solution. But I would prefer to better understand your
>> objective. Forms, for example, in my terminology are used to collect
>> data from users. I assume that is not part of your aim?
>> Andrew Watt
>> MVP - InfoPath