Chapter 9: Presenting Data with Access Reports
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Creating a new report and binding it to a query
The first step is to create a new, empty report and bind it to tblProducts. Creating a blank
report is quite easy:- Select the Create tab of the main Access ribbon.
- Click the Blank Report button in the Reports ribbon group.
Access opens a blank report in Layout view, and positions a Field List dialog box on top
of the new report (see Figure 9.25).
FIGURE 9.25
A blank report in Layout viewAt this point, you have two different paths for adding controls to the report: continue
working in Layout view, or switch to Design view. Each of these techniques has advan-
tages, but for the purposes of this exercise I’ll use Design view because it better demon-
strates the process of building Access reports.
- Right-click the report’s title bar, and select Design view from the shortcut menu.
The Report window transforms to the traditional Access banded Report Designer, as
shown in Figure 9.26. This figure also shows the Field List open on tblProducts,
allowing you to track fields from the list to the appropriate section on the new report.
In Figure 9.26, the Description field has been dragged onto the Detail section of the
report.