Access Cookbook

Create a Report with Multiple Columns

Problem

You want to print a two-column, phone-book-style report with large initial capital letters to set off each alphabetical grouping. There is no Report Wizard for creating such a report, and you don’t see a Column property to set up the number of columns you want. How can you make a multiple-column report in Access?

Solution

There is a way to format a report for multiple columns, but it’s not where you might look for it, on a report’s properties sheet or the report design menu. Instead, you’ll find it on the Columns tab of the Page Setup dialog. This solution guides you through setting up a multiple-column, phone-book-style report that includes a large drop cap for each letter of the alphabet.

Follow these steps to create your own multiple-column report:

1. Open in design view the report you want to format for multiple columns, and select File → Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog appears. Click on the Columns tab of the Page Setup dialog (see Figure 3-5).

   

   Figure 3-5. The Columns tab of the Page Setup dialog

2. Enter the appropriate settings for your report. You’ll find a brief description of these settings and the settings used for the sample report in Table 3-3. Click OK when you’re done.

   Table 3-3. The Page Setup dialog Layout settings

   Setting	Purpose	Sample
   Number of Columns	Number of columns.	2
   Row Spacing	Extra space, in inches, between ...