Convert Access to PDF

  • Jan 13, 2012

This tutorial shows how to use novaPDF to create and convert a Microsoft Office Access report to a PDF document, as well as how to convert other database objects (tables, forms, queries) to PDF. novaPDF is a PDF converter that allows creating PDF files from any Windows application that supports printing. If you don’t have novaPDF installed, use the Download page to download and install it.

On this page: Creating a report from an Access Database file Converting an Access Report to a PDF file using novaPDF Video Tutorial Access Reports to PDF Converting other Access database objects (tables, forms, queries) to PDF Programmatically saving Access reports as PDFs using novaPDF SDK

Microsoft Office Access is a database management application part of the Microsoft Office suite. Converting your Access database report (or specific tables, forms and queries from the database) to PDF is an advantage if you want to share the documents with other users (in this case the user does not need Microsoft Access installed to view them). By installing novaPDF you can convert Access reports, tables, forms and queries to PDF easier than ever. Simply choose novaPDF as a printer and once you press the Print button your database reports/objects will be converted to PDFs.

Creating a report from an Access Database file

To create an Access report from the Access 2007 database:

  1. Open Microsoft Access 2007 and go to Office Button->Open (or press Ctrl+O), browse for the Access database, select it and click Open
  2. Once you opened the database go to the Create tab and from the Reports section choose the type of report you want to create. You can create a basic report for the database by pressing the Report button or setup a custom report using the Report Wizard
  • access2007 create flat

To create an Access report from the Access 2010 database:

  1. Open Microsoft Access 2010 and go to File->Open (or press Ctrl+O), browse for the Access database, select it and click Open
  2. Once the database is opened go to the Create tab, click Reports->Report and the database report will be created.
  • accessreport2010 flat

Converting an Access Report to a PDF file using novaPDF

To convert the Access 2007 report to a PDF:

  1. Select the report you want to convert to PDF, go to Office Button->Print (or press Ctrl+P) and in the Printer section select novaPDF
  2. Before you create the PDF document you can adjust novaPDF’s settings by using the Properties button. You can also customize additional print options and columns settings by pressing the Setup button
  3. Click on OK and choose a location where you want the PDF file saved
  • access2007convert flat

To convert an Access 2010 report to PDF:

  1. Select the report you want to convert to PDF, go to File->Print (or press Ctrl+P) and in the Printer section choose novaPDF
  2. To adjust novaPDF’s settings before creating the PDF file click on the Properties button. You can also customize additional print options and columns settings by pressing the Setup button
  3. Click on OK and choose a location where you want the PDF file saved
  • access2010topdf flat

Video Tutorial Access Reports to PDF:

Converting other database objects (tables, forms or queries) to PDF

The other Microsoft Access database objects (tables, forms or queries) can also be converted to PDF documents in the same way as the Access reports.

To convert a Database object (table, form or query) to PDF:

  1. From the Access database select the object you want to convert to PDF, go to Office Button->Print (or press Ctrl+P) and choose novaPDF from the Printer section
  2. If you need to adjust additional settings click on novaPDF’s Properties button. You can also customize additional print options and columns settings by pressing the Setup button
  3. Click on OK and choose a location where you want the PDF file saved

Programmatically saving Access reports as PDFs using novaPDF SDK

If you are a developer and your application communicates with Access (or stores data in its format), you can use one of our PDF tools for developers, novaPDF SDK, to programmatically convert Access reports to PDF files without any user interaction.

To create PDFs programmatically from Access:

  1. Download and install novaPDF SDK, which includes a COM interface to customize novaPDF printer options and also several code samples on how the integration can be done (including an Access sample)
  2. Integrate novaPDF SDK with your application using the provided documentation.
  3. Use the MS Access sample (PDF Reports Access sample) to test its functionality. This MS Access sample creates in novaPDF Printer (comes with novaPDF SDK and is the printer driver that actually does the conversion) a printing profile called "Access Profile", activates this profile, sets the user options, opens and prints a report, and restores the original novaPDF Printer settings. You can further customize this sample to fit your needs.

This tutorial describes how to convert Access objects (reports, tables, forms, queries) to PDF files using novaPDF. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this article add a comment or rate it.

Applies to:

  • novaPDF Printer 1.x - 6.x
  • novaPDF SDK
  • Microsoft Office Access 2000, XP, 2003, 2007

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