Application idea

[tedesco24]

Does anybody know of an application or a simple way to accomplish this task. I collect vehicle information and features about a specific car and need to upload that data to a 3rd party who composes it into an advertising magazine.

Here is the process:
1. Visit dealership and hand write the vehicle information and features
2. Create a word document and type out my notes.
3. Upload the word document to our composing team.

What I'd like to do is create a list of the most common features, such as automatic, air conditioning, CD, leather seats, sunroof, etc.
Next to each feature create a box that I can "check" and have that word populate into the word document. This would save time instead of typing out all of the features.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Gregg2]

You can make check boxes in Word.

What do you mean by "populate into a Word document"?

 

[mstrze]

You can make check boxes in Word.

What do you mean by "populate into a Word document"?

Like he has a list of commonly used features/colors which he either clicks a 'radio button' for or chooses in a pulldown menu and the result would be a text file describing the vehicles...or in his ideal case, a Word doc.

EX: He chooses RED CHEVY CAVALIER 1998 AC 2 DR CD AUTO 2.2L...etc.

and his automatically-generated output would be:

"A Red 1998 Chevy Cavalier with a 2.2L engine, AC. This two-door model has a CD radio....etc...."

 

[chown33]

Sounds like a web page with a form: a few checkboxes for things like A/C, transmission, etc. and a free-form text area for other things.

 

[tedesco24]

Like he has a list of commonly used features/colors which he either clicks a 'radio button' for or chooses in a pulldown menu and the result would be a text file describing the vehicles...or in his ideal case, a Word doc.

EX: He chooses RED CHEVY CAVALIER 1998 AC 2 DR CD AUTO 2.2L...etc.

and his automatically-generated output would be:

"A Red 1998 Chevy Cavalier with a 2.2L engine, AC. This two-door model has a CD radio....etc...."

That's exactly what I'm trying to accomplish. The idea of creating radio buttons would work perfect. Any ideas on how to make this happen? I have zero programming skills so hopefully there is already something in place.

 

[mstrze]

I don't have any solutions for you. I think that we may have done something similar back at a job I used to have using Filemaker Pro, but don't quote me on that.

I am not a programmer, but someone with some programming skill should be able to throw something together for you fairly easily.

Finding that person is a different story. :/

Good luck and sorry I cannot help.

EDIT: Just thought of this....is this something your composing team's website can come up with as an online form? They could set it up to receive an email based on what info you provide through pulldowns and whatnot. Feedback forms, which have been a part of websites for 15 years have always worked like this.

 

[ksmith80209]

Use one of the myriad of online platform-as-a-service "build an app" systems such as: TeamDesk, Zoho Creator, Force.com, etc. This should be pretty easy to do in a very short timeframe.

 

[tedesco24]

Use one of the myriad of online platform-as-a-service "build an app" systems such as: TeamDesk, Zoho Creator, Force.com, etc. This should be pretty easy to do in a very short timeframe.

I think I'm getting close. Thanks for pointing me in this direction.
I've messed around in Zoho and created an application loaded with check boxes and multi-line boxes. It does exactly what I want. The final hurdle is getting the data exported. Any idea how to make this happen? Is there a different PaaS that might be easier to use?