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A solid report is built by choosing and arranging the appropriate database fields in an organized way on an area that represents a piece of paper. Your job doesn’t stop there though! Once you have the mechanics of the data and the story it tells correctly represented in a report, the next step is to format the fields and all the objects in a way that is pleasing to the eye and focuses the reader’s attention on the important parts of the report. For instance, bolding summary numbers and outlining or underlining them makes them jump out at the reader and say “Look at me first!” Attention paid to the aesthetic details can transform a solid data report into a great information report.
In Chapter 2, “Modifying a Report,” the business question focused on retrieving, grouping, and summarizing field data:
Business Question: We need the resort region, resort code, and mailing information for all the resorts sorted by resort name, with totals grouped by region and showing which ones are in North America.
In this chapter, the business question is still valid, and we have a data answer already, so what needs to be done next is to format the report in a way that does justice to the data, the intent of the report, and your skills as a designer.
Featured in this chapter:
Adding report summary information
Adding text objects to a report
Formatting common attributes
Working with borders
Setting font attributes
Formatting paragraphs
Adding hyperlinks
Defining report parts
Working with OLE objects
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