Chapter 8. Generating Reports
UNTIL NOW, BEYOND DESIGNING YOUR DATABASE and entering records into it, the focus in this book has been on how to get information out of your data by using filters and queries to locate and answer specific questions. You’ve learned a number of different ways to extract certain details depending on what you need to locate or what types of answers you’re looking for.
But what should you do when someone other than you needs to know some of the details found only in your database? Sure, you could run queries and either print out the results or copy them into email or publish them to a Web page where others can read those details. Perhaps, however, you need something more comprehensive and professional-looking, a more formal entity that’s ready for prime time and suitable for showing to your boss or a client, to members of a committee or other organization, or in a public presentation.
When it comes to pulling together details from your database for public consumption, reports are the way to go. As you’ll discover in this chapter, Access lets you create reports that can paint the broadest possible picture of whatever information you’re keeping or zero in on very specific details. With Access, your reports can be as short and simple as a bunch of mailing labels, or as professional and polished as an annual report, a comprehensive directory, or even a book-length manuscript. In this chapter, you’ll learn how ...
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