Create a Report in Access

Click on the Reports button, then double-click on Create report by using wizard.

In a manner similar to the process for creating a form, the report wizard will ask you a series of questions about your desires for the report. You should specify answers as follows:

• Which fields do you want on your report? In the "Tables/Queries" window, select the OpenMatters query. We have already chosen the fields in the design of the query, so we want all of them. Click on the >> to select all the fields.
• Grouping levels? You could group the records based on various fields, and then provide subtotals. For example, in this report, we might have wanted to sort the records based on the AssignedTo field, and then group them accordingly. This would result in a have all the letters assigned to ADC, followed by the letters assigned to TWS, and so forth. Our report is simple, and we don't need any grouping levels. So click Next.
• Sort order? The records produced by the OpenMatters query are already sorted the way we want, so we can skip this step. (Caution: if you were using grouping levels, you have to make sure that the records are sorted in the same way you want the groupings done. For instance, if we wanted to group by AssignedTo, we have to make sure that the records were sorted by AssignedTo (either here or in the query). Click Next.
• Report Layout? You can choose one of three predefined layouts. Usually the Tabular layout is the best, but you can look at the others. If you have a lot of fields, you may want to change the orientation from portrait to landscape. So let's choose Tabular layout and Portrait orientation. Then click Next.
• Style? You can choose from a set of predetermined styles. There's a small window to show you what each style looks like. Choose whatever you want; for this demonstration we'll choose the Corporate style.
• Report Title? Here you can choose the title for the report. It should be descriptive; a glance at the title should tell the user what the report is for. Let's choose Matters Still Open. We'll also choose to Preview the Report. Then click on Finish.

This report may be what you're looking for, and that's OK. You can, however, further customize the appearance of the report by switching to design mode. Click on View, and then Design View, to get a screen that looks like this:

Note that this is similar to the view for designing a form. You have a Toolbox which has predefined controls that can be placed on the report. Each control has properties that can be adjusted to change its behavior. In using the Report Wizard, much work has already been done by Access in placing controls on the report.

One major item to note is how this screen is organized. A report can be thought of a a series of horizontal sections or bands. Each section defines what will happen in the report at that time. As you can see, the sections are as follows:

• Report Header - what appears at the beginning of the report
• Page Header - what appears at the top of each page
• Detail - for each record processed in the report, what appears on this section will show up
• Page Footer - what appears at the bottom of each page. The Report Wizard has put the date and page number (Page _ of _) on the footer.
• Report Footer - what appears at the end of the report.

There, you've done it! Other than the user manual, you have completed the database project requirement for this course. We've just scratched the surface of what Access can do. A full-fledged application will consist of multiple tables, forms, queries and reports. There are other components like macros and modules which can further control the behavior of an application. If you want to get a fuller idea of what Access can do, it comes with some sample applications you can look at.

Download the Correspondence Database