Microsoft Access Lesson 3: Creating Reports

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1 Microsoft Access Lesson 3: Creating Reports In the previous lesson the information you retrieved from a database always was in the form of a table. This may be all you need if you are the only person using the information if you set up the tables in the first place then you won t have much trouble working with them. Frequently you will be writing queries for other people to use, though, in which case it is a good idea to display the query results in an attractive form that is easy to understand. Such displays are called Reports. Creating a Report Using the Report Wizard Let s create a report that lists each city and, under the city, lists employees living in this city with their phone numbers. We generally have shied away from Wizards in these lessons, but the Report Wizard is genuinely useful. Open the database ExampleDB and select Reports from the Objects list. Double-click on Create reports by using wizard. In the next window you will specify what fields you are using as the basis for the report. First you need to select the table or query on which the report will be based. Click on the arrow icon at the right of the Tables/Queries text window, which will display all the tables and queries created for this database. Choose the table tblemployees, information we need. which contains the 1

2 You now will see a list of available fields that were included in this table. At the right of the Available Fields list are four buttons: > Add one field to the Selected Fields list >> Add all Available Fields to the Selected Fields < Remove one field from the Selected Fields list << Remove all fields from the Selected Fields list For our report we want a list of employees and their phones number for each city in the database. We will need information from the following fields to create the report: City, First Name, Last Name, and Phone Number. At this point it helps to give a little thought to what the report will look like. Each City field name is going to be seen several times once for each resident. To make the report easy to read, it would be best to group the name and phone number information under each city: City #1 Names & phone numbers City #2 Names & phone numbers etc. With this in mind, let s select the City field first because it appears to be the most important. Do the same for the First Name,, Last Name and Home Phone fields. Click on Next. 2

3 Next you will be asked if you want to add any grouping levels to the report. As we suggested above, the report will be more attractive and easy to read if we group the name and phone number information under each city. Select City as a grouping level. You now will see City grouped above the other fields. Click Next. In the next window, you will be able to sort the information according to the different fields. Let s sort the records first by Last Name and then by First Name, both in ascending order.. Click on Next. 3

4 Next, you can choose the layout report. Leave the Page Orientation set to Portrait for the moment. We can always change this later. of the report. A Stepped layout probably would be best for this Click on Next. Choose a style. Take your pick here. Finally, enter a Title for the report. Use rpt as a prefix for the title of reports. You also can specify if you want to preview or modify the report. Click on Finish when you are ready. 4

5 If you preview the report, you will see the preview next. Note that the report uses the captions you chose as field properties in the table to label the fields in the report. Click on Close to close the preview. When you close the preview you will see the Design View of the report. Don t worry about this yet we will cover the Design View later in this lesson. Close the report window. The report already has been saved. 5

6 Creating a Report from a Query It often is preferable to create a report from a query you already have created. Use the query, qryearlyhire, thatt you created in the previous lesson to create the report shown at the right. Use Create report by using wizard again, but base the report on the query qryearlyhire. Save the report with the name rptearlyhire. Practice: Without creating a totally new query or report, produce the report shown at the right? (Hint: Think about modifying a criterion for the query, running the query again and saving it.) Practice: Create a new query and use it for a report, a portion of which is shown at the right.. 6

7 Design View of a Report Before you begin customizing reports, you need to understand how the Design View of a report relates to what you see when you print the report out. On the left in the illustration below you will see a portion of the Print Preview View of the report, rptcitiesphones, that we created earlier. On the right is the Design View of the same report. Portions of the Design View have been pulled away from each other to make the relationship between the two Views more obvious. The Report Header in the Design View is printed once at the top of the first page. This is the title of the report. The text in the Report Header is contained in a label control. A label control contains labels for the data in the database. Controls, such as label controls, that are not connected with the underlying database are called unbound controls. 7

8 The Page Header in the Design View is printed once at the top of each page (below the Report Header on the first page). The Page Header generally contains text that identifies fields in a table below. The Page Header also is made up of label controls. The detailed information from the database is displayed next. This is the information that makes up the bulk of the report. In this case we first see a City Header, corresponding to the grouping we have chosen. Below the City Header is the Detail section. The City Header and Detail section are made up of text box controls. Text box controls have a connection with the table or query on which the report is based. When a report is printed or previewed, information from the database is fed into the text box controls. Text box controls are called bound controls because they are connected with the underlying database. The Page Footer is inserted automatically by the Report Wizard so that the data and page numbers are displayed at the bottom of each page in the report. 8

9 Modifying a Label Control Once you have created a report with the Report Wizard, you may wish to modify it. One thing that you may want to change is the Title in the Report Header. It is good programming practice to name all reports beginning with rpt, but you may not want this in the title. Open the report, rptcitiesphones, and go to Design View. Click on the Label Control box that holds the title. You should see small rectangular handles on the corners and midway along the sides of the box. This indicates that the control has been selected. Select the text in the box Change the Title to Cities and Phones This has no effect on the information pulled from the database. Label controls merely hold descriptive text. 9

10 You also can change the color and font of the text. With the Label Control box for the Title selected, click on the menu button to the right of the A icon in the toolbar. Choose another color for the font. You also can change the type of font or font size like you have learned to do in Microsoft Word or Excel. For example, change the font size to 26. Note that the size of the Label Control box does not expand to fit the larger font. You will need to resize the box yourself. You can resize of the box by grabbing it with the mouse. Move the cursor until it is directly over the small rectangular handle in the middle of the right edge of the box, at which point the cursor will become a double arrow. Holding the left mouse button down, pull the side of the box to the right until it fits the text. Adding and Moving a Label Control Let s add a descriptive label to the report showing that you are the author. You should see the Toolbox on the screen. If it is not there, click on the Toolbox icon on the top toolbar. 10

11 Click on the Label tool in the toolbox. The cursor now will look like a plus sign with the letter A below it. Move the cursor over to the Report Header section of the Design View of the report and draw a white label control box on the right. Enter your name in the box. When you click on the Design View away from the new label control, the box will become transparent. You can move the box around with the cursor to place it where you want within the Report Header. Position the cursor so it is over the bottom or top edges of the box and not over a handle, at which point the cursor will look like a small hand. Hold the left mouse button down and move the box until it is positioned where you want. Look at the report by clicking on the Print Preview icon. 11

12 Modifying and Moving Text Box Controls After looking at the current report, we decide that it needs some more changes. Here are some things we would like to do: Move the first and last names so the first name is shown first. Resize and move the Fields so that the information isn t so spread out Add a Zip Code Text Box Control so the Zip Code will be listed for each employee. Include a Zip Code Label Control in the Page Header. First, we will move the Control boxes around so that the First Name boxes are displayedd before the Last Name boxes. We want to move the corresponding Label and Text Box Controls together so they stay aligned. Select one of the Last Name boxes and then, holding the shift key down, select the other. Drag the two control boxes until they are somewhere between the First Name and Home Phone boxes. Drop them there. Next, select the two First Name boxes and pull them to the right. Then select the Last Name boxes again and position them. After this is done, the Design View should look like the picture on the right. 12

13 Select the two City Control boxes and resize them so both are around 1 inch long on the ruler at the top of then form. Do the same for the First Name, Last Name, and Home Phone boxes. Select the two First Name Control boxes and move them until they are close to the City Boxes. Do the same for the Last Name and Home Phone boxes. Check the Page Preview View of the report. It looks a lot better now. Next we will add the Zip code to the report. Back in the Design View of the report, you probably will see a list of the Field Names in the table or query used for the report. If not, click on the Field Names icon on the main menu. 13

14 Select the Zip Code field. Grab it with the mouse and drag it into the Details section. When you drop it, you will see two Control boxes appear. The box on the right is a Text Box Control and the box on the left is the corresponding Label Control. We want the Zip Code Label Control box to be in the Page Header section with the other Label Controls. Select the Zip Code Label Control box and cut it (Edit, Cut from the main menu). Then Paste it in the Page Header section. You probably will need to move it after it has been pasted in. Change the sizes of the Zip Code boxes and their font (if necessary) to match the other controls in the same section. Using the grid as a guide, move the two boxes so their left sides coincide. Take a look at the report. How does it look? 14

15 Practice: Earlier in this lesson you created a report that looked like this one. Modify this report so it looks like the below. Here are the changes you should make: 1. Modify the query to include the fields you need for the new report. 2. Change the text in various Label Controls as illustrated. 3. Add a Text Box Control for the Depart ID In the Dept Name Header 4. Add a Text Box Control for the Employee ID in the Details section. The Label for this control should go in the Page Header. 5. Move boxes around so the report looks like the one at the right. Note that the DeptName, E/N, and Employee ID columns use centered justification in both the Label and Text Box Controls. 15

16 Mail Merge Reports A mail merge report is good example of the power of a database to make our lives easier. Suppose that you need to write a personalized letter to all employees that have been with your company more than ten years. You could type multiple copies of the letter, one for each employee, but that would take a lot of time. A mail merge allows you to type the letter up once and make it part of a report that merges in needed information (names, addresses, etc.) from a database. Step 1: Create a Word Document Earlier you downloaded this letter, Celebration Letter, on your H: drive. Celebration Letter looks like the picture at the right. Note that a series of Xs have been entered in the position where you would place the inside address and greeting, as well as the department name and hire date. When we do the mail merge, information from the database automatically will replace the Xs in the letter. 16

17 Step 2: Create a Query We will work with the EmployeesDB database. Create a query, the first three records of which are shown below: The criterion for this query is that the Hire Date is before January 1, Save the query as qrytenyears. Step 3: Mail Merge With the Word Document Display the list of queries for this database and choose the one you have created for the mail merge, in this case qrytenyears. Click on the Merge Wizard icon and select Merge It with Microsoft Office Word. 17

18 In the next window, check Link your data to an existing Microsoft Word document. Click on OK. Select the document, in this case the Celebration Letter you downloaded earlier to your H: drive. You then will see a Word document showing the letter with the Mail Merge menu on the right, as is illustrated below. Look at the Mail Merge menu on the right side of the screen. The default way to select recipients is from an existing list. In this case, we see that the recipients are being selected from the query qrytenyears in the ExampleDB database. Click on Next: Write your letter at the bottom. 18

19 Select the Inside Address Block in the letter. Click on Address block in the Mail Merge menu. In the Insert Address Block window, select how you want the Inside Address to look. The choices for this particular letter are illustrated at the right. When you have made your choices click on OK. Next select the Greeting Line in the letter and click on Greeting line in the Mail Merge menu. Choose a greeting line and click on OK. 19

20 We need to fill in the name of the department and the hire date yet. Highlight the XXXXXX representing the department name in the letter. Click on More items in the Mail Merge menu. You will see a list of fields available from the query. Select Dept Name and click on Insert. After you have inserted the Dept Name field, a Close button will appear at the bottom of the window. Click on Close. Insert the Hire Date field in the same way. At this point, your letter should look like this. Click on Next: Preview your letter at the bottom of the Mail Merge menu section. 20

21 You will see the letter as it will appear for the first recipient in the query. You can preview the merged letters if you like. You also will have the opportunity to edit the recipient list at this time. When you are ready click on Next: Complete the merge. Save the merged Word document at this point. The next Mail Merge menu will prompt you to print the letters. Don t print anything for this lesson. It would waste a lot of paper. Close the Word document when you are through. 21

22 Using a Saved Word Document Created by a Mail Merge You probably will want to use a Word document created by a mail merge more than once. Open Microsoft Word and load the Word document that you saved a moment ago. You will be asked if you want to open the document and place data from the database in it. Choose Yes. The Word document will have an extra toolbar at the top that is only there when the document has been created by a mail merge. Click on the View merged data icon several times. You should see the document toggle back and forth between the Mail Merge insertionn blocks, such as <<AddressBlock> k>> and the appearance of the document when it contains data. You can run through the letter showing recipients if you like. 22

23 When you are ready to print, click on the Merge to printer icon. You can specify what records you want to include in the printing. Don t actually print anything for this lesson. Practice: You are going to have records for sale at a convention and want to create a sign that you can post showing information about each record. Open the Records database that your created in the first lesson. Do the following. 1. Create a query that will list the records by label, number, and artist showing their condition and value. List only records that are worth $10.00 or more. Sort by value in descending order. Save the query as qrytendollars. 2. Use this query to produce a report that looks like the one at the right. Save the report as rpttendollars The date at the top is a Text Box Control containing an =now() function, like in a spreadsheet. Note the wide space above each artist s name. How do you think this could be done? Do it in your report. Continued on the next page. 23

24 3. Create a Microsoft Word document that looks like this one. Use Word Art to create the Records for Sale logo at the top. The picture of a 45 rpm record is available for download on the Access lessons web site. Put a $ sign before the string of Xs in the Value line. Save the document in your H: drive 4. Do a mail merge using the qrytendollars query you created in part 1. When you choose the Xs to insert the value, don t select the $ sign. You may find the case of the Condition is lower case. If so, use Format, Font on the Word menu to change the font to All Caps. 24