Structural devices

When you look at a report in Design or Layout view, Access displays a ton of markers (called controls by Access) that are grouped into several areas (called sections by Access). Together, these design elements make up the layout of your report — and determine where the report data appears on the printed page.

Sections

The sections (report headers, for example) determine where and how often the elements will print.

The report design in Figure 19-3 displays the most common sections (in the order of their appearance on the page).

Chapter 20 shows how to slice and dice your sections. The following information is a summary of the report sections.

Headers

Access provides a pair of header sections for the top of reports.

The header section you use depends on whether you need to print information at the beginning of the report or on every page:

• Report Header: Anything in the report header prints just once at the very start of the report — the top of the first page.

  Typically, a report title appears in the report header.

• Page Header: Information in the page header prints at the top of every page.

  On the report’s first page, the page header appears below the report header.

  Typically, the page header contains column heading labels. You can also add design elements such as lines or shaded rectangles to the page header to separate the data rows from the column headings. You may want the report title to appear on every page. If so, place it in the Page Header and it will!

Detail

The Detail section displays the essence of the report — the actual database records. The Detail section appears only once in Design view. However, the Detail section is repeated for every record in the actual report as seen in Layout view.

The report automatically fits as many Detail sections (records) as possible between the header and footer sections on each page of your report.

The data in the Detail section usually fills the majority of each report page.

Footers

Access provides a pair of footer sections for the bottom of reports.

The footer section you need depends on whether you need to print information at the end of the report or on every page:

• Page Footer: When each page is nearly full, Access finishes it off by printing the page footer at the bottom.

  Common page footer elements are the date and page number.

• Report Footer: At the bottom of the last page, immediately following the page footer, the report footer is the last thing that prints on the report. This information prints only once.

  Typically, the report footer contains summary formulas that calculate grand totals for numeric columns (such as total dollar sales).

Page breaks

By default, Access fills each report page automatically with as many records as possible and then starts another page. But Access does provide a couple of ways that you can control how reports start new pages:

• Grouping: Places like records together.

  For example, you’re printing a donation report by month and you want each month to start at the top of a page. If you group the report by month and add a group footer, you can tell Access to start a new page after each month’s footer prints.

  For more about putting records into groups, see Chapter 20.

• Page Break control: Starts a new page from the point where the control is placed in the Report layout.

  The following sections show how to add and remove page breaks.

Grouping is much more efficient in controlling page breaks than the Page Break control. Only use the Page Break control if you can’t get the pages to break the way you want with grouping.

Inserting a page break

Here’s how to add a page break in Design view:

1. On the Design tab of the Ribbon, click the Controls button in the Controls group and then select the Insert Page Break button. (See the Ribbon in Figure 19-4.)

   The mouse pointer changes to a crosshairs with a page next to it.

2. Position the crosshairs wherever you want the page break and then click.

   A small horizontal line appears on the left side of the report. What you are seeing is actually the selected Page Break control. Click somewhere away from the line, and that line will become a series of dots, as shown in Figure 19-4. From now on, a new page always begins at the spot of the marker.

Adding color

A little color can help keep report readers awake as they browse through 300 pages of data.

These buttons change the color of labels and text boxes in your report:

• Font Color: Changes the color of text in a text box or label marker.
• Background Color: Changes the control’s background color, but not the text.

These buttons are located in both Layout and Design view on two different Ribbon tabs. You can find them in the Font group on the Format tab or the Text Formatting group on the Home tab.

You might find these buttons are easier to work with in Layout view.

When a text control is selected, the buttons will show you the current font and background colors for the control. To change colors, follow these steps:

1. Click the control to select it.

   The control has a thick border around it.

2. Click the arrow to the right of the Font Color or Background Color button.

   The menu of colors appears.

3. Click the color you want to use.

   The colors are divided into sections:

   • Theme: Colors that the experts at Microsoft have determined work well together
   • Standard: All colors that have been created for you
   • Recent: All colors that have been used in the current Access session on the report

If you make the text and background colors the same, the text seems to disappear! If this happens, just click the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar to bring back the original color setting.

Relocation, relocation, relocation

Don’t like that column where it is? The position of your report title got you down? Your line won’t stay in line? You can easily move just about any element (text box, label, line, and such) in a report.

• Most elements can be moved in Layout view. You see your data in Layout view, so we recommend that you start there.
• If you have trouble in Layout view, switch to Design view. For example, we find lines are easier to work with in Design view.

The amount of space between the controls determines the space between items when you print the report:

• Increasing spacing gives your report a less crowded look.

  This is appropriate if you have only a few columns on your report and you want to spread them out to fill up the width of the page. For example, a report that shows annual donations by volunteer might have a column for the volunteer name and a column for donation amount. Spread out the controls to fill up the page width.

• Decreasing the space enables you to fit more information on the page.

  This is appropriate when you have many columns on your report and you want to fit them all on the width of one page. For example, a report that shows donations by month may have 14 columns — 1 for the volunteer name, 12 for the months, and a Total column. Crowd the 14 controls together to fit the page width.

Moving a group of controls

In a columnar report, you can move an entire group of controls in the Detail section. Here’s how:

1. Click one of the controls in the Detail section.

   A thick border appears around the item and a Select All box (the little guy containing a four-headed arrow) appears toward the upper left corner of the group of controls. (See Figure 19-7.)

2. Roll the mouse over the box icon containing the four-headed arrow.

   The mouse will change to a four-headed arrow.

3. Drag the group of controls to a new position.

   All the controls in the group will move at one time. Everything stays in alignment.

One size does not fit all

The Report Wizard as well as the basic Report button do their best to size your report items properly. Very often, however, neither gets it right. A column will be too narrow or too wide, using the space on the page inefficiently. Do you throw your hands in the air and curse at the computer gods? Of course not. You can size any control to your exact needs.

I find that sizing works best in Layout view; you can see the data in the controls as you’re sizing them. You can also size your controls in Design view.

Follow these steps to size a control:

1. Select the item you want to size by clicking it.

   The item will have a thick border around it.

2. Roll the mouse pointer to the edge of the selected item.

   The mouse cursor changes to a two-headed arrow. See Figure 19-8 for a picture.

3. Drag your item to its new size.

   As you drag with the mouse, the two-headed arrow drags an outline of whatever object you selected to show you its new size.

4. Release the mouse button when the item is the right size.

   The item stretches or shrinks to its new size.

   Labels can be scaled to the exact size required to display all the text. To do this, follow Steps 1 and 2 in the previous steps and then double-click rather than drag. Like magic, Access figures out the correct size for the item and sizes it accordingly.

Spaced-out controls

The spacing of columns is a common problem in tabular reports. The Report Wizard creates a control group in the Detail section and tends to butt columns up against each other, sometimes making data difficult to read. If this is the case for you, you can use the Control Padding button located on the Arrange tab of the Ribbon to space everything out a bit.

This adjustment can be done in either Layout or Design view, but I think you’ll find Layout view is easier.

Follow these steps to add space between your columns in Layout view:

1. Click one of the controls in the group and then click the Select All box that appears. (Refer to Figure 19-7.)

   The labels and text boxes for all the columns are selected.

2. Switch to the Arrange tab on the Ribbon, if necessary, by clicking it.

   The Arrange buttons appear, including the Control Padding button located in the Position group. (See Figure 19-9.)

3. Click the Control Padding button.

   Four padding choices drop down.

4. Select one of the last three choices to add spacing between the columns and rows.

   The first choice (None) will butt all the controls up against each other, so if your goal is to add padding, you’ll want to avoid that one.

   Check your changes in Print Preview (see “Sneaking a Peek,” later in this chapter). Sometimes adding too much space between columns pushes one or more of them off the page. If this happens, experiment with the different choices on the Control Padding button until everything fits correctly.

Borderline beauty

Organizationally speaking, lines and borders are great accents to

• Draw your readers’ eyes to parts of the page.
• Highlight sections of the report.
• Add some style.

The Format tab on the Ribbon contains three commands that work with lines:

• Shape Outline
• Line Type
• Line Thickness

You can use these commands on a line control to change the appearance of the line or on label and text box controls to add a border to the control. The three buttons are within the Shape Outline button in the Control Formatting group on the Format tab.

Coloring

The Shape Outline button changes the color of lines that mark a text box’s border and lines you draw on your report by using the Line button.

This button works just like the Background Color and the Font Color buttons for text.

To change the color of a line or other control border, follow these steps:

1. Click the item to select it.

   The item has a thick border around it.

2. Click the Shape Outline button.

   A drop-down display of color choices appears, as shown in Figure 19-10. The colors are divided into sections:

   • Theme: Colors that the experts at Microsoft have determined work well together
   • Standard: All colors that have been created for you
   • Recent: All colors that have been used in the current Access session on the report. Recent will not display until you’ve used at least one color.
   • Transparent: No color applied to the object’s outline

   Note: The Shape Outline button hangs out in the Control Formatting group of the Ribbon’s Format tab.

3. Click your color choice from the many options.

Thickness

In addition to colorizing lines and control borders, you can also adjust their thickness:

1. Click a line or other control to select it.

2. Click the Shape Outline button to reveal its choices.

   Near the bottom of the Shape Outline drop-down list is the Line Thickness button.

3. Click Line Thickness to reveal a submenu of options, as shown in Figure 19-11.

4. Click the thickness option you want.

   Like magic, your line or border thickness changes.

   You’ve heard this tip before but it’s such a good one, I’ve got to say it again. All together now! If you make a mistake, click the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar or press Ctrl+Z to undo your mistake.

Changing the type

You can change the type of line displayed by your line control or other control border. The Line Type button handles that job for you. Eight choices are available under this button, as shown in Figure 19-12. Don’t know what I mean by line type? Well, think dotted, dashed, or solid.

To change the line type of a control, follow these steps:

1. Click the control whose line type you want to change.
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Shape Outline button to display its options.
3. Click Line Type (the very last choice) to reveal a submenu of line types.
4. Click the line type you want.

Tweaking your text

You must select the text you’d like to tweak before using any of the formatting tools. With Access labels, all the text in the label must be formatted the same way. You cannot format one word differently from another. The same is true with the contents of a text box — unless the text box is tied to a Long Text field with its Text Format property set to Rich Text (see Chapter 3 for details).

Alignment

You can control the alignment of the text within labels and text boxes. To change the alignment of the text for a label or text box, follow these steps:

1. Select the control.

2. Click one of the three alignment buttons found in the Font group of the Ribbon’s Format tab.

   Figure 19-13 shows the alignment buttons. Pictured from left to right:

   • Align Left
   • Center
   • Align Right

Make sure your reports follow these simple rules for your reader’s pleasure:

• Align numeric data and dates to the right so the numbers line up correctly. Use the Number group of buttons on the Ribbon’s Format tab to help keep your numbers orderly.
• Align text to the left.
• Align your column headings to the data in the column:
  • Text column headings should align left.
  • Number column headings should align right.

Drawing lines

An easy way to make your report a bit easier to read is to add lines that divide the sections. Lines can be added only in Design view.

You can use the Shape Outline button (discussed earlier in this chapter) to dress up your lines.

You must switch to Design view to add lines.

Pretty as a picture

You can add some flair to a report by adding a logo. This, of course, also helps identify that the printed document is from your organization. Use the Logo button to add a logo to the report. After you click the button, you will be prompted to select a logo file. By default, Access places the logo on the upper left corner of the report.

The Logo button places an Image control on your report. You can find this button on the Design tab’s Header/Footer group.

Adding a logo

You can add a logo in both Layout and Design views.

Pages that contain logos take longer to print. Use your logos wisely:

• Headers and footers are the best places for logos.

• The Detail section is not a good place for logos.

  In the Detail section, you get one copy of the logo for each record on the report. This could greatly slow the printing of your report and one could argue, add a few too many logos to the report!

  Should you have a report title on the upper left corner of your report, move the title to the right to make room for the logo before you insert the logo.

If you want to add a logo to your report, switch to Design or Layout view and follow these steps:

1. Select the Design tab on the Ribbon, if necessary.

   The Design buttons appear, including the Header/Footer group.

2. Click the Logo button from the Header/Footer group.

   The Insert Picture dialog box opens.

3. Navigate to the folder that contains your logo, and select the logo file. (See Figure 19-16.)

4. Click OK.

   The logo is placed on the upper left part of the report.

After you add a logo, you can size, move, or delete the logo as described earlier in this chapter.