Using Expressions

Expressions give a powerful way to let a value be determined dynamically / at runtime. An example of this would be automatic naming and storing of documents. Expressions allow you to pick up values from:

• Fields in the data source;
• Functions in Access
• Access Mail Merge defined substitutions
• Strings
• Mail Merge specific names

Examples

• SaveAs.Folder = "[My Documents]\[Template]" 'puts document in a subfolder of My Documents with the name of the template, e.g. My Documents\Contract
• SaveAs.File = "[Template]_[Field:CustomerName]_[Function:Format(Now(),'mmddyy')]" 'names the document after template, CustomerName and date creation, e.g.  Contract_Jones_120507  

What happens behind the scenes is that a property such as SaveAs.Folder is evaluated so that

1. [Field:...] is replaced with the value of that field in the current record
2. [Function:Date()] are evaluated with what is currently returned from Access 
3. Access Mail Merge defined substitutions are executed

• [Template] > name of the template
• [processname] > name of process being run
• [My Documents] > Path of the 'My Documents' folder
• [Temp] > Path of the TEMP folder
• [RecordNumber] > N-th record in the current run of a process