Chapter 9: Presenting Data with Access Reports
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The Grouping Options dialog box enables you to further define the grouping. This selection can
vary in importance, depending on the data type.The Grouping Intervals list box displays different values for various data types:l Text: Normal, 1st Letter, 2 Initial Letters, 3 Initial Letters, 4 Initial Letters, 5 Initial Lettersl (^) Numeric: Normal, 10s, 50s, 100s, 500s, 1000s, 5000s, 10000s, 50000s, 100000s
l Date: Normal, Year, Quarter, Month, Week, Day, Hour, Minute
Normal means that the grouping is on the entire field. In this example, use the entire
CustomerName field.
Notice that the grouping options simplify creating reports grouped by calendar months, quarters,
years, and so on. This means that you can easily produce reports showing sales, payroll, or other
financial information needed for business reporting.
If you displayed the Grouping Options dialog box, click the OK button to return to the Grouping
Levels dialog box, and then click the Next button to move to the Sort Order dialog box.
Selecting the sort order
By default, Access automatically sorts grouped records in an order meaningful to the grouping field(s).
For example, after you’ve chosen to group by Customer Name, Access arranges the groups in alphabeti-
cal order by Customer Name. However, for your purposes, it might be useful to specify a sort within
each group. As an example, your users might want to see the customer records sorted by Order Date in
descending order so that the newest orders appear near the top for each customer group.
In this example, Access sorts data by the Category field. As Figure 9.7 shows, the data is also
sorted by Description within each group.
FIGURE 9.7
Selecting the field sorting order
Opens Summary Options dialog box