Many of the reports you create will simply be an exercise in displaying the data in a certain way – since reports are made from queries, and most of the queries will have already been built prior, reports with the Wizard are a snap! Access lets you create a new query to base the report on if you like. The first page of the Report Wizard should look pretty familiar:
If you click the pull-down arrow on the Tables/Queries combo box, you will see all of the tables and all of the queries that are currently stored in your database file. Just like queries, reports can be created by using the data directly in your tables and/or by using the results of other queries that are already constructed. For our purposes, we will assume that there are already some perfectly good queries available to use and extract data from. Let’s see how the Report Wizard creates a product listing similar to the example shown at the beginning of this lesson. As an example, we will display all product names, prices, stock levels, and discontinued status. Ensuring that ‘Query: Alphabetical List of Products’ is selected in the Tables/Queries combo box, we can pick and choose which available field we want to show in the query. Click an item and then click the (>) button to use the field.
The next page of the Wizard allows us to group by a certain level or field. In our case, we will make the report without any grouping.
The next page allows you to apply a sort order to the information in the report. To alphabetize the results, click the pull-down allow on the #1 combo box and pick ProductName from the list:
The next page of the Wizard allows you to adjust the physical layout of your report. For our purposes, the default options will be fine:
At the next screen, Access gives you a few different styles to choose from. Pick one to suit your liking:
Finally you can give the report a name and choose to see the report right away or modify the report in Design view. Either way, click Finish to complete the Wizard.
Let’s look at the final product:
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