Good day all,

Problem: Users cant have more than one attachment open at a time.

Goal: Provide a way for users to have more than one attachment open at a time.

Set up: Win 10, MS Access Ver. 2112 (should be latest version as of post date), split FE/BE, Oracle 11g2.

Operation: Users create a record via a main form. Each entry represents a task to be carried out. The main form, contains a sub form that allows multiple attachments to be saved per record. The subform is a linked table from Oracle, connected through ODBC, and the column storing the attachments is BLOB. This functionality is working great.

Situation: Some of the processes that users carry out require management review. This means that a manager will pull up the record in Access and begin opening the attachments. Because some of the review processes require comparison of the attachments, it has become problematic because only one attachment can be open at a time.

Example: A record contains an attachment in the subform. Left click only attempts to edit the thumbnail that has been automatically placed in the field. Instead, a user will right click->document object->Open. This will open the attachment in whatever program the users desktop has associated with that file type. In this case, let's assume that the file is a MS Word doc. MS Word will open with the document. Everything functions as it should until the user right clicks on the next attachment to open it. This causes the Word doc to close, leaving MS Word open but with no document displaying.

Note: While the MS Word attachment is open, in the upper left hand corner, the words "Document Saved to this computer", with a combo next to it can be seen. Clicking the combo reveals that the document has been given a temporary name and is being temporarily held in the Word program folder in App Data.

Clunky work around: At this time, the only option for the users is to open the attachment, save it to a local folder, and repeat for each attachment. Once all the attachments are all saved, the reviewer can go about their business. This was problematic enough for users to inform me about their dissatisfaction with the functionality. I know, shocking. lol

Help!: What I'm seeking are suggestions and methods for either making it work in the way the users need or for some sort of work around, like, coding for access to gather and save all attachments to a given location.

If you read this far, thank you.