Reports and Forms on Access

[ketangarg86]

Hi,
I am new to Microsoft Access and would really appreciate your help on report. I have somehow managed to make a database in Access. Now I want to create a report form for the user. Basically whenever the user clicks on the report, he should be able to view the updated report from the access database.

Report is based on the data from a table. I have like 10 columns in the database. 3-4 of the columns have the same values for each row in the datasheet because the date, for example, is the same for all rows. Plus some rows would have some columns blanks.
So below is how I want the report to look like:
1. The column with the same values should be should on the top once. Example if we have data from one factory, the items such as date visited, factory name, and person who visited would remain the same. I want to show them once on the top of the report so that there are less but meaningful columns for the user to view.
2. I want to show only those rows which have a particular column to have some data.
3. How to apply conditional formatting on columns in the report based on the column values from columns not present in the report but present in the database table.
4. Can I print the report to pdf with all the attachments associated with each row also printed.
5. Can the report be dynamic that the user can see the report from one factory by selecting from the drop down menu (am fine if this can be done by a form).

Last thing, how can I create a form so that the user can search for a specific row in the database by selecting some drop down column fields and then attach attachments to that row.

[June7]

1. Use report Sorting & Grouping features to organize the records.

2. apply filter criteria to the report RecordSource

3. fields must be included in the report RecordSource and might have to be included in bound textboxes but the textboxes can be set not visible

4. this requires elaborate code to print other files, even embedded attachment documents - the document must first be saved externally from the db
lots of large embedded documents can use up Accesss 2GB file size limit fast

5. yes, review:
http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/f...mtoreport.html
http://www.allenbrowne.com/ser-62code.html

[ketangarg86]

Thanks for the prompt response but I am a total beginner. Could you please point me to the right sources for each of the item numbers for more clarification.

[June7]

1. Access Help has guidelines for using report designer

2. see no. 5

3. nothing unusual here - BOUND textboxes on report or form, set Visible property to No, apply Conditional Formatting, Access Help has guidelines on Conditional Formatting

4. advanced VBA code

5. see earlier post

You could probably benefit from completing a basic introductory tutorial book. Need an understanding of relational database principles, Access functionality, programming concepts, macros and/or VBA.

[ketangarg86]

Thanks a lot June. One last question, I am using an access form to search for a record in the table. My form has multiple combo boxes and a search button. How do I go about adding an event to the button of the form, such that on click it only shows the record that matches the selection in the combo boxes. I used macro builder and on click event to OpenTable but am unable to use ApplyFilter action properly to get the record that matches the selection of the combo box.

I use the below but it prompts me to enter the Question# instead of picking it from the combo box in the form. Please help.

[Access]![Question #]=[Question#Combo].[Value]

Access is the name of the table.

[June7]

I don't use macros, only VBA as shown in the referenced links.

Where did you use that code. Probably don't need the table name prefix. Also don't need to type .[Value] because Value is default.


Advise no spaces or special characters/punctuation (underscore is exception) in naming convention. Better would be Question_Num or QuestionNum.

[ketangarg86]

Thanks. I was able to figure it out..

[Data]!Division=Forms![Search Records]!DivisionCombo Or (Forms![Search Records]!DivisionCombo Is Null)