Designing a Report

At first glance, the design of a report follows the same approach as that of a form. Both use the same Windows controls either from the Toolbox or from the More Controls button. The techniques of selecting, copying, moving, and resizing controls are the same.

1. Open the Solas Property Management database you created in Lesson 14
2. In the Database window, click Tables and click Invoices
3. To start a new report, on the main menu, click Insert -> Report
4. In the New Report dialog box, make sure Design View is selected and Invoices is selected in the combo box box.
   Click OK
5. Save the report as Invoices
6. Using the Field List, the Toolbox, the Properties window, and toolbars, design the report as follows:
    
   
    
   
7. Save the report and preview it
    
   
    
   
8. Close the report

As compared to a form, a report has some custom properties to accomplish its role. For example, while a form can be equipped with one Form Footer and one Form Header sections, a report can have as many sections as you judge necessary. This is because a report uses a characteristic known as grouping. Imagine that you want to print a list of students with selected information such as their names. To better organize the list, you can divide the group by gender.

To create a grouping in a report, if you are using the Report Wizard, after selecting the columns, in the second page of the wizard, select a column in the left list and click the button that selects one item . The third page of the wizard will allow you to specify how to display the columns.

If you are designing the report, to create a grouping, right-click it and click Sorting and Grouping. This would display the Sorting and Grouping window. Using the combo box under Field/Expression, select a column and, using the corresponding combo box under Sort Order, specify how to sort the records, in ascending or in descending order. After selecting a grouping, set the Group Header property to Yes to create the section on the report. If you also want the new section to close with its own footer bar, set the Group Footer property to Yes.

When a report with grouping comes up, it display the title of the grouping followed by all records that follow the rule(s) of the grouping. At the end of those records, it immediately starts with the second list of records that follow the next rule of the grouping. As an alternative, you can start each group of records on its own page. To do this, in the Sorting and Grouping window, after selecting the column, set the Keep Together property to Whole Group.

1. Open the ROSH database
2. To create a new report, on the main menu, click Insert -> Report
3. In the New Report dialog box, click Report Wizard
4. In the bottom combo box, select Students and click OK
5. In the first page of the wizard, double-click Gender, StudentNumber, FirstName, LastName, and DOB
6. Click Next
7. In the left list of the page, double-click Gender
    
   
8. Click Next twice
9. In the fourth page of the wizard, accept the Stepped radio button and click Next
10. In the fifth page, click Formal and click Next
     
    
11. In the sixth page, change the Title of the report to Students Names and click Finish
12. Switch the report to Design View and arrange it as you see fit
     
    
13. Right-click the report and click Sorting and Grouping
14. In the Sorting and Grouping window, click Keep Together and click the arrow of its combo box to select Whole Group
     
    
15. Close the Sorting and Grouping window
16. Preview the report
     
    
     
    
17. Save and close the report