I am currently trying to create a directory like listing of data from a SQL database, and have had problems finding a tool that can do the job effectively.

I am currently using Access to create an Access Report Snapshot file, which I print to PDF and then edit manually to add the cover pages, and index etc. This is extremely tedious and I am sure is not the best way of doing it. If I try to export the Access Report to RTF format, the formatting is lost and the RTF document is almost unusable. Strange that Access does not export to a richer format such as Word.

Other options I have thought of are creating a VBA app within Word to import the data from the SQL database, and create the document on the fly. Although this is feasible, I imagine it will be a lot of work considering Access reports hide a lot of the formatting and sizing issues that one would normally have to manually deal with. On top of this, we are using 2 columns per page which would further complicate things in MS Word.

Does anyone have any ideas of other tools which can create Access Report like documents, which are editable in Microsoft Word or similar tool. Acrobat is not really ideal for editing documents. Has anyone used Crystal Reports, what is the export to Word document like, would formatting and graphical elements such as lines be maintained after exporting?

Cheers.
Matt