Getting to Know Microsoft Access, Part 8: Learning about Reports - Report Wizard
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The Report Wizard is similar to the Form Wizard. This Report Wizard steps you through a series of dialog boxes that you must complete in order to create a report. There are some things you can do with the Report Wizard that you can’t do with the Form Wizard. For example, the Report Wizard gives you options such as: sorting, grouping, and summarizing. You create a single-table report with the report wizard by choosing your table in the report wizard dialog boxes.
Additionally you can create a multiple-table report by selecting a main table and subordinate tables in the Report Wizard. To do this, just choose both tables you want to base your report on in the dialog boxes in the report wizard; the wizard will automatically create a hierarchy for you. Make sure your tables are related before you try to base a report on them, or you’ll get errors.
When you want to create a report that uses monetary or numeric values you can use the summarizing options. Summarizing allows you to find the minimum, maximum, or average of a group of values, or to compute total values and percentages. You can choose detailed summaries or just the standard summary. Finally, you can check a box with the label "Calculate percent of total for sums" to show on the report what percent each calculated sum is of the total calculated sum.
Once you’ve created your report, you can preview how it will look when it prints or you can change its appearance in the design view. The report design view is almost identical to the form design view and gives you the same options.
You can change the style for your reports by choosing the Format | AutoFormat menu option. Using this method you can change the font, color, and border formatting for your reports.
You can add page numbers to your reports by choosing the Insert | Page Numbers menu option. You can edit the format of the page numbers by entering a custom expression in the control source property box for the page numbers field. For example, the following expression: =[Page]&”/”&[Pages]&”Pages” makes the page numbers on each page of the report appear as 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, or 5/5 depending on what page you are currently viewing (the first number) and the number of total pages in the report (the second number).
You can create report snapshots – basically electronic versions of reports you can distribute by email instead of by paper. Just choose the name of the report you want to use and choose the File | Export menu option. Choose the Snapshot Format in the Save as type box when the Export Report As Dialog box opens up.
Next: Customizing Your Report >>
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