Chapter 18: Preparing and Printing Reports in Microsoft Office Access 2003

Overview

10-Second Summary

• Design a report

• Create the report

• Format and modify the report

• Save and print the report

• E-mail reports

They say we re all headed in the direction of the paperless office, but I predict we re still at least a few years away from that scenario. As a general rule, we like to see things in black and white. We want to hand out reports at meetings; we want to give people printouts to take home and review; we need something to put in each other s mailboxes.

Once you ve entered, sorted, modified, and organized your data, you re likely to want to produce some kind of cogent report. A report can show how well your business is growing ”or where you need to cut back. A report can list your best-selling items, or shine a light on customer-service problems most likely to cause complaints. With Access, not only can you put your data in a logical, easy-to-understand form, but you can also make the results truly report-like, adding headers, footers ”even charts and pictures that make your report visually appealing.

Note  

Once you create a report, Access makes it available in the database window, so that you can select it at any time. When you open the report, Access reads the data in the data table to which it is attached ”which means that the report shows you the most current data you ve entered each time you view it. An Access report is not like a static report you create in Microsoft Office Word 2003 or Microsoft Office Excel 2003; a report in Access retrieves any new data, so that you re always getting the most current picture of your database.