The fastest way to create a report that displays specific field captions and contents from more than one table is by using the Report wizard. Sometimes, however, you might want to create a main report that serves as a shell for one or more subreports, but displays little or no information from the underlying tables. It can be easier to create the main report manually in Design view.
1. | On the Create tab, in the Reports group, click the Report Design button.
Access displays a blank report.
Tip
The Page Header, Detail, and Page Footer sections you see in Design view are the default sections for a new report, but you can add or remove sections to fit your needs.
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2. | If the Field List pane isn't open, click the Add Existing Fields button in the Tools group.
Troubleshooting
If the Field List pane covers the report, you can make the pane narrower by dragging its left edge to the right.
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3. | Right-click the report, and then click Report Header/Footer.
Report Header and Report Footer sections now enclose the default Page Header, Detail, and Page Footer sections.
Troubleshooting
If the page header and footer disappear from your report, you can restore them by right-clicking the report and then clicking Page Header/Footer to restore them.
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4. | In the Field List pane, expand the Categories field list, and then double-click the CategoryName field.
The selected label and text box appear in the Detail section of the report window.
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5. | Close the Field List pane.
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6. | On the Design contextual tab, in the Grouping & Totals group, click the Group & Sort button.
The Group, Sort, And Total pane opens below the report.
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7. | In the Group, Sort, and Total pane, click Add a group.
The Group on bar appears, with the select field pane open.
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8. | In the select field pane, click CategoryName.
A CategoryName section header appears in the report.
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9. | Close the Group, Sort, and Total pane.
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10. | Select the CategoryName label and text box, then move the two controls to the grid just below the CategoryName header.
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11. | In the upper-left corner of the report, click the Report Selector, and then press  to open the Property Sheet pane.
Report Selector
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12. | On the Format tab, set the Grid X and Grid Y properties to 10.
You might find it easier to align controls against this larger grid.
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13. | Click the Report Header section, and then on the Format tab in the Property Sheet pane, set its Height property to 1".
Troubleshooting
Throughout this book we refer to measurements in inches. If your computer is set to display measurements in centimeters, substitute the equivalent metric measurement. As long as you are entering the default units, you don't have to specify the unit type.
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14. | Repeat Step 13 to set the Height property for other sections of the report as follows:
Section | Setting |
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PageHeader | 0" | Category/Name Header | 2.2" | Detail | 0" | Page Footer | 0.2" | Report Footer | 0" |
Tip
You can manually set the height of a section by dragging the top edge of the section selector up or down.
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15. | On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Save button. In the Save As dialog box, type Sales by Category in the Report Name box, and then click OK.
Save
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16. | On the View toolbar, click the Report View button to see the results of your work.
Report View
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