FileMaker Pro Advanced and Microsoft Word 2007: Can these work together seamlessly?

[Albertalawyer]

Introduction This is a simple question and I appreciate any help or insight that anyone in the community can provide.

Background I'm a practicing family and commercial real estate lawyer. I have approximately 150 precedents (word templates with basic fields to automate processes such as other lawyer's contact information, pertinent client information, etc.) which I use on a regular basis. To date, I use a very simple Access database (about 75 fields) which contains the data I use. For input, I use 6 very simple input forms.

Dilemma/Problem: I found out about FileMaker by chance. I downloaded the trial and I LIKE how it does things. I can imagine it would be quite a bit easier for me to set up more intuitive and appropriately related databases using FileMaker. In other words, I could automate my legal practice easier and more importantly, I may find it easier to create forms for other employees to fill out.

HOWEVER, I do not know how to link the FileMaker Pro database to my Microsoft Word precedents. Obviously Microsoft Word does not recognize FileMaker format as it is. This is a problem.

Question: How can I fix this? Is there a simple solution?

Initial thoughts and research: I'm a lawyer and not a programmer. I am not going to be programming any scripts. I tried computer programming a long time ago (I can see a copy of Deitel & Deitel 3rd edition from where I sit) and I suck at it.

I read a previous thread that said you can create the output as an excel file and then use that. I will not do that, simply because that solution would require a real-time update from the database file to excel on our work server. That is not practical for me.

Is there another solution that would work for this? Or in other words, is there a solution that is simpler than simply learning how to use Access better?

Thanks a bunch,

Matt

[Wim Decorte]

There are many ways of doing what you want.

The simples would be simply forget your word templates and create the same output on FM layouts. But FM is not a word processor though and it doesn't have Word's full feature set.

Integrating two applications will involve some scripting, either in FM or in Word VBA (or VBscript). You'll find that if you want to do this more seamlessly with Access you'll have to get into Access scripting too. No way around that.

[Albertalawyer]

Thank you for your timely response.

Of course, the time and energy required to transfer 150+ precedents into FileMaker Pro would cost quite literally tens of thousands of dollars.

Second, FileMaker Pro is a poor word processor. It lacks essential legal features such as robust commenting, change tracking, find and replace, footnoting, and listing features.

Third, every other lawyer/assistant/secretary would demand to use Word. It is the standard.

Access does not require scripting for most of the features I need. It simply lacks the intuitive database formatting that I would like.

I think I've answered my question: The pros for continuing to use Access outweigh the cons. I would like to use FilePro but because I do not require an enterprise class database, Access will have to do.

Unless of course, there is a simple solution that I am missing.