The example form consists of five simple tables that contain form fields.

The Word form isn’t as difficult to create as it might look. Figure A: The highlighted areas are text fields. Specifically, the example will transfer data from the Customers table, via a form, to the Word document shown in Figure A. We’ll work with existing data in the Northwind database (the sample database that comes with Access).

A Word document that represents the form you need to fill.

A bit of VBA code to automate the process.

A method of identifying the Access data you want to transfer.

The automated solution requires three pieces: Note:This information is also available as a download, which includes text files containing the VBA code from Listing A and Listing B. The good news is that Word and Access play well together. When this is the case, you may find it necessary to transfer Access data to Word forms. Now, you might not care what the report (paper form) looks like, but perhaps management does. For instance, you may find that you can’t exactly reproduce an existing paper form in Access, whereas you can in Word. Access reports provide a flexible and easy-to-use tool for sharing data, but sometimes, it’s the wrong tool.

Susan Harkins walks through an example to demonstrate the process. When you need to bring your Access data into a Word form, a little VBA can expedite the task.

How do I… Fill Word form fields with Access data?

Word insert text form field