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Forms & Reports:
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![]() Did you want: Working with Databases: Access 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 | ||||
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By packing the Detail data into two or more columns on the page, you can often save a lot of paper. To create columns of records you must deal with both the Margins and Columns tabs in the Page Setup dialog, as well as the layout of the report and its Detail section. You will likely need to tweak the settings more than once to get everything looking good on the page. Frustrating, for sure!
Language Arts Classes: 2 columns |
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Project 4: Forms & Reports
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Report Design View for Multiple ColumnsMultiple columns do not show in Report Design view. What you see is not quite what you get! The same layout in Report Design View, below, can produce both the one-column report and the two-column report! The difference is in the choices in Page Setup.
In a four-column version of the same report, below, the Detail section in Report Design View appears to have a LOT of wasted space. Why are the controls are so tightly packed at the left? The Print Preview shows why! All that empty space got filled up with columns. Again, the choices in the Page Setup dialog make a big difference.
Page Setup Dialog: Creating Multiple Columns
Under Grid Settings:
Under Column Size you have two ways to go to set the size of a record in a column:
Measure the Spaces:
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Step-by-Step: Create Multiple Columns |
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What you will learn: |
to use Page Setup to create multiple columns to design the report to use all of the page to design the report to have full-width report header with multiple Detail columns |
Start with:
,
resource files,
worldtravel.mdb from the previous lesson
For this exercise you will take an existing report and change it to use multiple columns. Then you will make some adjustments to the formatting and layout so that it looks good in the new arrangement.
Open the report Clients -
country totals from the Database Window.
You created this 3-page report in the first part of a
previous lesson. The clients of World Travel Inc. are grouped and
counted by country and postal code.
Inspect
the pages.
Clearly there is a lot of wasted space in this layout. Since the report
uses 3 pages, let's try to squeeze the records into 3 columns on one
page.
You will have to reduce the space taken up by the Detail controls.
The report's title is about the same width as the current width of the
Detail controls. You have two choices about that. You could revise and
shorten the title but for this lesson you will make the proper choices in
Page Setup so that the title can extend across multiple columns.
You need to rearrange the controls in the Detail and group footers to get them into a smaller space.
Open the Page Setup (File | Page Setup) and
check the values for the margins.
Currently the report's left and right margins should be 1", top margin
is 1"and bottom margin is 0.5". If they are not, change
the margins.
Calculating: The
paper is 8 ½" x 11", so subtracting 2" for the two
side margins leaves 6 ½" for the 3 data columns that you want. Each column could be 2"
wide, leaving some extra space in between as Column Spacing. Let's move some controls around and
see if we can make that work.
Switch to Report Design View.
Drag the right edge of the report to expand it to
6 ½" wide.
Remember, the page margins are not shown in this view.
Move the title in the Report Header to the
center of the width.
Move the controls for your name and the
page number in the Page Footer
to the center of the width.
Move the Detail controls to the left,
nearly to the edge of the report.
Move the Total controls in the group
footers left, slightly staggered.
Select all 3 text boxes with the expression
=Count(*) and set the Width in the
Properties dialog to 0.4" wide.
Position the text box for the Country total
to fall across the 2" line, as in the illustration.
(There is a reason!)
Select the two divider lines by dragging
across where they should be.
One divider line is above the label Country in the group header. The other is at the top
edge of the Detail
section and does not really show.
In the Properties dialog set the width of each line to 2".
Assuming that your rearranging of the controls on the report is going well, you still have to make changes to the Page Setup setting.
Open
the Page Setup dialog.
On the Columns tab, set the following:
Number of Columns = 3
Width = 2"
Same as Detail = unchecked
Down, then Across
Click on OK to close Page Setup.
Switch
to Print Preview.
This is very close to want we want!
Inspect the pages carefully.
Whoops! You should see at least two problems, depending on exactly how
you positioned the controls:
The Total for Country sum is not showing. Since
you set the Width of the column to 2" and deliberately positioned the
control across the 2" line, of course it got cut off!
(Good lessons show you how to handle mistakes and problems, so we
sometimes have to create them on purpose!)
There is just one country on page 2. So close!
To get more space you can change
the margins.
Open Page Setup again,
while still in Print Preview, this time to the
Margins tab.
Change the all margins to
0.5".
The Bottom margin was already at 0.5".
This will release some space at the top as well as on both sides.
Click on OK.
The preview changes to use the new settings. Sweet!
The columns rearranged themselves to use the new vertical space, but the
columns just moved over. They did not automatically use all of the new width.
There is extra space at the bottom of the third column, yet the report
footer, with the count of clients for the whole report, stayed on page 2.
A strange trick for Access to play on us.
What is happening with the Report Footer? The design gave it 6" of width,
just like the header. So it won't fit into a column. It's only the Detail
section that can wrap in columns when you don't use Same as Detail.
While
still in Print Preview, open Page Setup yet again, to the
Columns tab.
Change the column Width to 2.3".
Click on OK.
The preview refreshes to use the new width.
Hurrah! The Total for Country value shows now that the column is wider. But the grand total for the
report is still off by itself on a separate page.
Since that report footer won't fit into a column, you can move the Total of Clients in the report's Header instead.
Switch to Report Design View.
In
the Report Footer select the control for the total and its
label.
Drag the selected control and label and
drop, centered below the report's title text box.
The section automatically enlarges vertically.
Be sure that there is no white space above or below the two labels and
none between them either.
Switch
to Print Preview.
Looks good, but wait! The navigation button at the bottom shows that
there is more than one page.
Click the right arrow on the navigation
bar.
The next page is blank! Whatever is happening??
The Report Footer still exists. It just doesn't have any controls in any
more. That is easy to fix!!
Switch to Report Design View.
Drag
the bottom edge of the Report Footer up to meet the selection bar and
there is no more white showing for that section.
Switch to Print Preview.
Now there the report fits on exactly 1 page. Whew! What a lot of
tinkering that took.
Problem: Still two pages
Check the spacing in the Report Header section. The section height
should be no more than 0.55" when the two labels are
touching, with little or no white space above or below them. In the illustration the height is
0.5".
Save the report
as Clients -
country totals-3col
Print
the report. (one page)
Another adjustment you could have made is to reduce the Page Header height to zero, like you did for the Report Footer.
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~~ 1 Cor. 10:31 ...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ~~ |