I was asked by a friend who has a small business to make a database that would contain all of his customer info (names, addresses, purchase info, etc) and he would also like to query the DB for an address and be able to print that address on an envelope. I'd like to do this for him with MySQL, but I'm not sure how to go about the envelope address idea (other than a simple copy and paste into MS Word or something (since this will be running on a windows based system). I'm sure there 's a way to do this but I don't know if its more trouble than its worth with MySQL or if I'd be better off to build it with Access anyway sicne it's a very simple DB.
If you have any suggestions on that I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

Hi there!

It seems to me that the MySQL approach would be rather complicated, because (correct me if I am wrong) there is no simple "out-of-the-box" way to implicate your MySQL queries into MS Word. I would go for the Access solution you suggested. There are build-in functions in Word which allow you to connect your Access database with Word documents. However, if you are considering a MySQL solution for the future, exporting your Access database into MySQL is rather simple.

Access would probably be easier... however (the other side of the coin):

What you could do is write a ASP/PHP script to generate an rtf file based on the queries you fed it and provide the completed rtf file as a download. This way it's dynamically generated and never needs to be stored anywhere. And for the skeptics, there are RTF generators available for php (probably for asp too).

thanks for your suggestions guys. i can't type worth s**t right now, just had surgery on my hand. Anyway, going with access for now, if need be i'll move it to MySQL in the future. May try both (mysql as a test DB only) and then see what I think.
thanks again.
sandberg