Part I: Access Building Blocks
340
a report control. To adjust a control’s height and width, click on the control and drag its margins
to the new height or width.Note
Layout view first became available in Access 2007. Versions earlier than 2007 do not support Layout view.
Saving the report
Save the report design at any time by choosing File ➪ Save, File ➪ Save As, or File ➪ Export from
the Report Design window, or by clicking the Save button on the Quick Access toolbar. The first
time you save a report (or any time you select Save As or Export), a dialog box enables you to
select or type a name.Tip
You might find it useful to save a copy of a report before beginning maintenance work on the report. Reports
tend to be pretty complicated, and it’s easy to make a mistake on a report’s design and not remember how to
return the report to its previous state. A backup provides a valuable safeguard against accidental loss of a
report’s design.
Banded Report Design Concepts
Access reports support a “banded” approach to design. The banded report design is an important
concept and must be mastered by Access developers. In an Access report, data is processed one
record at a time. Individual fields may be placed in different places on report and can even appear
more than once in a report, if needed.Many first-time Access developers are confused by a report’s appearance in Design view. Some
people expect to see a “page” that is decorated by adding fields in a large design surface, much like
how forms are built. However, because Access processes report data one record at a time, Design
view is meant to help you specify how each row is laid out on the printed page. In addition, Design
view shows you elements such as a page’s header and footer, and areas occupied by group headers
and footers. Each area occupied by controls plays a vital role in the report’s appearance when
printed.Reports are divided into sections, known as bands in most report-writing software packages. (In
Access, these are simply called sections.) Access processes each record in the underlying data set,
processing each section in order and deciding (for each record) whether to process fields or text in
that section. For example, the report footer section is processed only after the last record is pro-
cessed in the recordset.In Figure 9.22 (rptProductsSummary), is shown in Print Preview. Notice that the data on the
report is grouped by ProductCategory (Cars, Trucks, and so on). Each group has a group
header containing the category name. Each group also has a footer displaying summary information