IDs

Ugh ... that FUN FUN thing that is creating IDs.
We've been having a heck of a time here with creating them in the first place.

• Pictures disappeared.
• Pictures were too dark.
• Pictures were too light.
• The color printer didn't work.
• The business cards were on back-order, for 3 weeks.
• The laminator breaks down.
• I wasn't able to attend the orientation session and therefore was unable to stay on-top of the project.
  

I understand that there might be some sort of solution in the future that will combine student records, picture and possibly their library record in one fell-swoop that would solve a lot of headaches (wouldn't that be nice) , but for our campus, we needed a better solution.

It was suggested that we use Access to figure out the process, so we've tested a possible solution, and so far, it looks like it'll work.

(select screenshots for a clearer view) This is the process we used:

1. We imported information of ALL of our current students from CLASS into this Access database. The picture is taken at orientation and I use Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2 (free download) to change the picture's filename to their name, crop, fix red-eye, etc. The picture was added as an attachment, which was easy to fine since I changed the filename.
   I created 2 fields that helps in the output of the student's information - ORDER & PRINT. The order is the order of which the record would print, and the print, well, is to actual print that record.
2. I created Print Query that would print the correct records in the correct order.
3. I created "labels" with the exact parameters of the business cards that we print.
4. I then had the labels using the "print query" as the source.
   
5. Looking at the records, it runs down the page continuously, but in the "print preview", it shows the documents just fine!
   
   
   
   (Figure of the labels in Design View)
   
   
   

(in continuous view)
(in print preview)



















Right now, of course, the laminator is broken and I'm awaiting a fix from Demco, but it WILL work!