Introduction to Reports

A report is essentially an easily readable representation of a table or Query. Reports are used to present database information to others in an easy to understand format.

Report Wizard

The best way to create a report in Access is the Report Wizard. First you need to go to the Create tab:

1. Find the Report Wizard command in the Report group and select it.
2. The first window you will see asks you which fields you want to include in your report. If you have fields that are not important to your report you can choose to not include them. First you need to select the Table/Query that you want to report on and then you must move the appropriate fields over to the right. When you have the fields you want, hit next.
3. Next, you need to decide if you want any grouping levels. This allows you to decide on how the report will be organized. For example, if you are creating a report for an address book, you could make your grouping level on city; this would organize each of your contacts by their city of residents. Once you have established your grouping or decided to not group, hit next.
4. Next you can designate up to four fields that dictate how the report will be ordered. For instance, you could choose to organize by last name in ascending order. When you have decided how you want to order your report, select next.
5. Decide on the layout of your report, the three options are: Columnar (takes up more space and lists each record separately), Tabular (lays everything out in a table style), Justified (which creates a form like layout). You also need to decide if you want a Portrait or Landscape orientation. When you are done, hit next.
6. Decide on an appealing graphical style.
7. Name your report and select finish.

From here you can edit the basic layout of your report, but for the most part you should only need to resize fields. A big thing to pay attention to is that sometimes fields are too small for the entries and instead of the actual data, there will be just a series of # symbols. Resize the field until the actual data appears.