Step Number 1

Now, we are going to work on the Recipes Report we just created. Typically, using the report wizard is not enough if you want your report to look professional. First, make sure that the database window is open to the Reports tab and that rptRecipes is visible. Right click on it and select Design View.

Step Number 2

The following window should appear. Now, there are tons of things wrong with this report. For one thing, the heading is wrong, for another, many of the fields on the report aren't big enough to hold the data they need to display. Besides that, the labels for the fields aren't even sufficient to hold the names of the fields. Access didn't do a really great job with this report. To see just how ugly it is (and it's bad, but fixable), switch to Preview Report by clicking the button on the left side of the toolbar.

Step Number 3

At this point, you are probably wondering why we even use the wizard. What the wizard does is get all the fields we need onto the report. It doesn't make them look pretty - that job requires a human being. The problems we need to fix should be obvious once you see the way the report looks on the page. Let's switch back to design view.

Step Number 4

Manually editing reports is done the same way that you would manually edit forms. First, right-click on the title (rptRecipes) and change it to Recipes, using the properties window.

Step Number 5

Afterwards, drag and resize the controls on the report until it looks like the screen shot below. Simply resizing the fields so that they can appropriately display their data is a good way to start fixing the mess the Report Wizard left you with.

Step Number 6

Now, switch over to preview mode using the button on the left hand side of the toolbar. Your report already looks quite a bit better, just by rearranging the fields. You may have to move things around a bit after you start using the database, since it is difficult to tell if the fields are appropriately sized without data in them (and since I have yet to get my recipes organized, I don't have the data in the database yet).

Step Number 7

Exit the report and save it when prompted. Next, we need to fix the switchboard form so that we can reach this report from the our database's startup screen.

Step Number 8

Open the switchboard form in form view. While we can easily access our database forms from this switchboard, we can not access the recipe report or any other reports that we choose to create. This is a problem that we should probably fix. Even though this section of the tutorial is about manually designing reports, don't be concerned. Forms and reports are very similar in Access. In fact, one might say that reports are simply a specialized type of form.

Step Number 9

Open the switchboard in design view. Be sure that the control toolbar is visible. Your screen should appear similar to the screenshot below.

Step Number 10

Go ahead and add a button to the switchboard. We will be using the control wizard to make this button open the Recipes report. You should see the dialog shown below.

Step Number 11

Select Report Operations from the list box on the left, then select Preview Report from the listbox on the right side. This tells the control wizard that we want to open a report in preview mode. Click Next.

Step Number 12

In the next dialog, select the obvious choice, rptRecipes and click Next

Step Number 13

Now, we will decide how the button should appear. Choose Picture if it is not already selected, then select MS Access Report 1 and click Next

Step Number 14

In the next dialog, name the button cmdRecipeReport and click Finish

Step Number 15

Your screen should now look like the one below. The picture just doesn't look right on a button this size. In the next few steps, we will fix this.

Step Number 16

Right click on the button that we just placed on the switchboard and select Properties.

Step Number 17

In the dialog that appears, be sure that the Format tab is the one displayed and then click on Picture. Notice the little button that appears to the right (it is labeled ...). Click on it to open the Picture Builder.

Step Number 18

The dialog box below should appear. Using the picture builder, you can set the picture on an Access button to be any of several http://academic.lipscomb.edu/access/images that come with Microsoft Access or any custom image that you have on your hard drive (to find a suitable picture on your hard drive, you would click Browse..., but we are going to use one of the http://academic.lipscomb.edu/access/images that comes with Access instead).

Step Number 19

Choose MS Access Report 2 from the list box and click Ok.

Step Number 20

Now, we have chosen a picture that is appropriately sized for the button.

Step Number 21

Next, select the label that says Recipes Form and right click on it. Select Copy from the menu and then right click on the form again. This time, select Paste from the menu. Drag the newly created copy of the label until it is lined up properly with the command button. Now, change the caption (by right clicking and selecting Properties) to Recipes Report

Step Number 22

Now close and save the form.