Summary
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The goal of a good report is to present in a pleasing way any information that will answer the business question. Database fields that are grouped, sorted, and summarized are the heart of a good report.
You can use the Field Explorer to add fields to a report either after running the Report Creation Wizard or creating a report from scratch. Remember that you must take care in placing the fields since the sections will determine the behavior of the data when it displays in the report. To help with placement, you take advantage of guidelines, rulers, and alignment grids.
The goal of grouping and sorting data is to organize it in a way that is easily digested by whomever is reading the report. The sorting options for groups range from the simple to the complex, culminating in custom groups that are not based on values actually stored in the database. Instead, you write business rules to derive a meaning for the data. As you’ve seen, sorting isn’t limited to groups. Sorting data values within a group can help organize information as well.
Finally, summarizing data adds information to a report that wasn’t part of the stored data. The simple summaries performed in this chapter help to answer the business question.
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EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 217