Chapter 9: Presenting Data with Access Reports
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Note
Notice the Bound Object Frame control for the Small_Picture field. Access always creates a Bound Object
Frame control for an OLE-type object found in a table. Also notice that the Detail section automatically resizes
itself to fit all the controls. Above the Bound Object Frame control is the control for the memo field Features.
Controls are needed for the customer information in the page header section. Before you do this,
however, you must resize the page header to leave room for a title you’ll add later.Resizing a section
To make room on the report for the title information in the page header, you must resize it. You
resize by using the mouse to drag the bottom of the section you want to resize. The mouse pointer
turns into a vertical double-headed arrow as it’s positioned over the bottom of a report section.
Drag the section border up or down to make the section smaller or larger.Resize the Page Header section to make it about^3 ⁄ 4 inch high by dragging the bottom margin of the
page header downward. Use the Controls group on the Design ribbon tab to drag labels to the
report. Add two labels to the Page Header section, and enter Product Display as the Caption
property of one label, and Collectible Mini Cars for the other.The labels you just added are unattached; they aren’t related to any other controls on the report.
When you drag a field from the Field List, Access adds not only a text box to contain the field’s
data, but also a label to provide an identifier for the text box. Labels that you drag from the
Controls group on the Access ribbon are unattached and not related to text boxes or any other
control on the report.You may notice the Page Header section expanding to accommodate the label controls that you
dragged into the section. All the fields needed for the Product Display report are now placed in
their appropriate sections.Tip
To create a multiple-line label entry, press Ctrl+Enter to force a line break where you want it in the control.
Tip
If you enter a caption that is longer than the space in the Property window, the contents scroll as you type.
Otherwise, open a Zoom box that gives you more space to type by pressing Shift+F2.
Modifying the appearance of text in a control
To modify the appearance of the text in a control, select the control by clicking its border (not in
the control itself). You can then select a formatting style to apply to the label by clicking the appro-
priate button on the Formatting toolbar.