Unit 12. Reports (III).

The report design view.

It is the design view that allows us to define the report, here we indicate to Access how it should present the source data of the report, and here the controls serve us in much the same way as when we design a form.

To enter into the design view we need to position ourselves in the Database window with reports selected and then to click on the button.

The design window appears:

The design area is normally made up of five sections.

The Report header section, here we put what we would like to appear in the beginning of the report.

The Page header section, here we put what we would like to appear at the beginning of each page.

The Detail section, here all the source records of the report will appear, either various records or just one per page - depending on the report. Even if various records are seen on a page, we need to indicate the design corresponding to only one record in the Detail section.

The Page footer section, here we put what we would like to appear at the end of each page.

The Report footer, here we put what we would like to appear at the end of the report.

We can delete the headers and footers from the View menu, Page Header/Footer and Report Header/Footer.

The tick to the left of the option indicates to us whether the sections are open or closed, and if we remove a section we also loose all the controls associated with it.

To open them we need to go back and select the option.

We have rulers around the design area to help us measure the distances and the controls. We also have a grid available with which to place the controls within the design area.

To see or hide the rulers or the grid we have the Grid and Ruler options from View menu, as we can see in the previous image.

The report design bar.

If you have enterred into the form design and this bar does not appear you can make it appear from the View menu, then Toolbars, and then Report design.

Next we will describe the various buttons that make up this bar.

The first one allows us to go from one view to another, and if we drop down the menu we can select from Design view which we are explaining now, or Print Preview which presents the source data of the report in the way it will be printed, or the Layout preview which allows us to quickly examine the design as it will only include one sample of the report's data. If the report is based on a query that needs parameters it is not necessary to type any value, we only need to click on the OK button.

The Save button allows us to save the changes made in the design without exiting the report.

The Search button allows us to search for files.

We then have the Print button with which to send the report to the printer, and Print preview to see the report before sending it to the printer.

We then have the Cut , Copy , Paste , and Copy format buttons to apply these same actions to the controls in our report. In order for the Cut, Copy, and Copy format to be activated we need to first select the control/s onto which we wish to apply the action. E.g select the control to copy, click on the copy button, then position the cursor in the area where we want to leave the copy and click on the Paste button.

The Undo and Redo buttons are for undoing the last action if we made a mistake, or redoing an action that we have undone.

To insert a hyperlink we have the button.

The next button makes the list of fields box appear and disappear, in which all the source data fields appear in order to make them easier to add to the design area as we will see ahead.

The button makes the Toolbox appear or disappear in which all the types of controls appear in order to make them easier to add to the design area as we will see ahead.

The button allows us to modify the group levels as we will see ahead.

With the Autoformat button we can change the aspect of our report to a predefined design from Access with just one click, these are the same styles that appear in the report wizard.

All reports have an associated code page in which we can program various actions using VBA language (Visual Basic for Applications), this code page can be accesses by clicking on the button.

With the button we can make the Properties box of the selected control appear or disappear. The report's properties are much the same as those of a form.

The button starts the expressions, or macros or code generator.

If we want to go to the Database window we have the button.

To create a new table, query, report, macro, etc... without exiting our report we can use the button, on dropping it down we can select the type of object we want to create in the database.

And finally we can access the Access help by clicking on the button.

Go to the next screen if you want to continue with this unit...

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