Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
Unleash the power of MS Outlook to cutomize and use macros and templates for programs like Excel and Word, and more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
Chapter 22: Designing Outlook Reports
Overview
If any single area of Outlook falls short, it's printing and reporting. Outlook's built-in capabilities for regurgitating its data as printed reports and files in other formats are very limited. For example, when you use Outlook's File, Import and Export command, you cannot export user-defined fields. Items that use custom Outlook forms are not exported at all! Furthermore, there is no method for printing a custom form in a format that resembles the on-screen form. An individual form always prints in Outlook's memo style, which produces a simple list of fields.
Because of these major limitations, being able to extract Outlook data into some other format either a file or a printed report is an essential skill for Outlook programmers. This chapter discusses how you can export and print from Outlook without programming, using techniques such as Outlook views. You will also see how to push Outlook data into Excel or Word. These reporting techniques can be adapted not just for printed output, but also to produce files of exported data.
Highlights of this chapter include discussions of the following:
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Why folder views are the key to simple tabular reports
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How to use a Word mail merge to build a contact report
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How to build tabular reports with Excel
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How to duplicate the look of an Outlook form with a Word template
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How to print invoices and other reports that combine data from two different folders
Note that the Word mail merge method and all the methods in this chapter that...
Copyright Sue Mosher 2003 under license agreement with Books24x7
