Making Finding Aids for the WWW

4.2 The module method

This method does require some programming, but it's pretty simple. I garnered most of what I needed to know from the Access help files. The key to this method is the "Print" function, apparently a hang-over from the days before Basic went Visual. The "Print" function allows you to write directly to a file, thus avoiding all the Report generation and export hassles of the old method. It overcomes the two specific problems of the "export to rtf" method - no truncations, and it's much, much faster.

To compare the efficiency of the new method I tried generating the Directory of Archives in Australia using both methods and compared the results:

	Export to RTF:  
		Output to rtf:   2 mins 25 secs
		Word macro:      1 min  32 secs
		TOTAL TIME:      3 min  57 secs

	Module method:  27 secs in total!

To get started you simply open a new code module, insert a function, and give it a name. Now you can start writing some code.

There are three main stages:

1. Get your data - this involves writing an SQL statement to extract the data that you want to work with from your database
2. Combine the data and the HTML formatting in a series of variables
   
3. Use "Print" to write these variables to a file

What we want to end up with is WWW finding aid comprising a "Contents" page listing each series, linked to a page for each series listing each item in that series. Here's how...

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