"Using Microsoft Access reports is the finished polished article which presents your data in a professional and consistent format..."

You can use reports to format, calculate, group and sort data into an output that can be viewed (Print Preview) or printed as a hard copy making this type of object a very powerful way to run dynamic reports at the click of a button!

This type of component is deemed as part of the front-end of Microsoft Access and is an optional object that is implemented as part of the database application.

Types of Access output documents for example would typically include a simple tabular list of customers or transactions, a group by a region and with a sub list, a letter mail merge, a chart or even an order document.

If you want a more generic understanding of a Report's canvas and their controls and properties, you may want to view how to design a report from scratch.

Reports can also have nested reports known as sub-reports which is a report inside another and will usually be related by a common join. The process can be via the wizard control or by setting its properties between the main and sub reports.

By learning to set up the relational database in Access, the wizards normally handle the rest. The only added caveat is some design layouts will need manually updating - Access 2003 (and earlier) layouts for reports are very basic!

Also, wizards can also group and calculate totals by value or percentage at each group and/or report level taking the hard work out of writing your own calculations.

Note: You can download the database file of your version to test the examples explained and illustrated throughout this website.

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