In our previous tutorials, you’ve learned a
good deal about Microsoft Access.
Together, we created a
query, modified the query to make it
more complex, and created a data entry
form. We've learned the
skills necessary to put information into a database and selectively
remove the exact information we're seeking. In this tutorial,
we're going to go a step further and learn how to create
professionally formatted reports automatically from our database
information. Returning to our familiar Northwind Company,
we're going to design a nicely-formatted listing of employee home
telephone numbers for the use of management.
The sample images in this tutorial were created
using Access 2000. If
you are running an earlier version of Access, your screen images may
appear slightly different. However,
the same general principles still apply and you should be able to
follow along. If you need a quick-start on the basics of
Access before getting started, take a look at the article "Microsoft
Access Fundamentals."
Once again, we're going to use the Northwind
sample database. Before we get started, open up Microsoft
Access and then open the Northwind database. If you need help
with this step, please read the article "How
to Install the Northwind Sample Database."
1. Choose the Reports menu. Once
you've opened Northwind, you'll be presented with the main database
menu shown below. Go ahead and click on the
"Reports" selection and you'll see a list of the various
reports Microsoft included in the sample database. If you'd
like, feel free to double-click on a few of these and get a feel for
what reports look like and the various types of information that
they contain.
2. Create a new report. After
you've satisfied your curiosity, go ahead and click on the
"New" button and we'll begin the process of creating a
report from scratch.
Create a new report
3. Select the Report Wizard. The next screen
that appears will ask you to select the method you wish to use to
create the report. We're going to use the Report Wizard which
will walk us through the creation process step-by-step. After
you've mastered the wizard, you might want to return to this step
and explore the flexibility provided by the other creation methods.
4. Choose a table or query. Before
leaving this screen, we want to choose the source of data for our
report. If you want to retrieve information from a single
table, you can select it from the drop-down box below.
Alternatively, for more complex reports, we can choose to base our
report on the output of a query that we previously designed.
For our example, all of the data we need is contained within the
Employees table, so choose this table and click on OK.
Select a creation method
Next, we'll select exactly which
table data to include in the report and learn how to apply
formatting to our finished product. Read on!
Next page > Selecting
the Data
> Page 1, 2, 3
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