Managing a Database using Word / IIS

[Aaron G]

I have a fairly ambitious client who would like to offload the management of
intranet content to other individuals in the organization. For the project
to be successful, the data management must be as painless as possible.
Accordingly, the ideal interface for data input is Microsoft Word, as most
users are extremely comfortable working with it.

I would like to be able to create word templates/forms which are dynamically
populated with data from an database, then downloaded to the client PC. Once
the data is updated, I would like the user to upload their files back to the
server, which will in turn update its database and maintain an audit-trail of
all changes.

Can this be done? I'm assuming that if I install Office on the server, it
would be feasible using the office API, but I would love to be able to do
this without office on the server..

any hints / suggestions would be HUGELY appreciated!

Thanks,

Aaron

 

[Tom Kaminski [MVP]]

I have a fairly ambitious client who would like to offload the management of
intranet content to other individuals in the organization. For the project
to be successful, the data management must be as painless as possible.
Accordingly, the ideal interface for data input is Microsoft Word, as most
users are extremely comfortable working with it.

I would like to be able to create word templates/forms which are dynamically
populated with data from an database, then downloaded to the client PC. Once
the data is updated, I would like the user to upload their files back to the
server, which will in turn update its database and maintain an audit-trail of
all changes.

Can this be done? I'm assuming that if I install Office on the server, it
would be feasible using the office API, but I would love to be able to do
this without office on the server..

any hints / suggestions would be HUGELY appreciated!

That's really not such a good idea. See:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257757

Word is not an ideal interface for data input, but HTML forms are.

--
Tom Kaminski IIS MVP
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