Grouping & forced next page issue in Access 2k report

[mylovelyhorse]

Hi,

In a db where associated items (e.g. piece of equipment and associated parts list) all have a common field, I've set up a query to report on these sets (as identified by the common field) in a simple format - the main item at the top and the subsidiary devices underneath, with some text in the footer.

The report I have designed for this query has the common field in the page header and this is the grouping field. The details of the main item are in the system header and the subsidiary devices are in the detail section. I then have some text in the page footer.

What I want is to be able to open the report and see one page per main item, with any associated subsidiary devices. What I have is something like that, except the report uses all available space on the page to go on to the next main items, rather than going to a new page for a new item (and all its bits - if it has any). I've tried forcing a new page in the headers and details but I either get one page per part or a page with item and 1 device, with the remaining devices (and there can be many) each on a seperate page.

Can anyone suggest a method of grouping, page-breaking (or other!) that will allow me to have my group of parts on one page whilst moving on to the next main item for each new page?

cheers

mike

 

[Steve101]

Mike,
I think that you need to review your approach here. Within the Access report design environment, select the View, Sorting and Grouping options, and in the Sorting and Grouping window which appears, select the first field which you want to Group by, and make it your first Field/Expression entry in the window; then do the same with the second field you wish to group by etc.

You will notice as you assign values to the Field/Expressions as above, that a series of group properties appear at the bottom of the window. Set the Group Header and Group Footer properties to Yes. You will notice that a couple of report "bands" are added to the report. It is these header and footer bands that you use to control and display your group by fields.

Once you've set these bands up, try dragging fields into them, in the same way as you're using the PageHeader bands and so on. In particular, take note of the ForceNewPage property associated with each band. I think you'll find this relevant to your question.

Another thing you might want to try is the Report Wizard, which walks you through creating a Grouped report. Once this has been done, you can look at the report in design view and better understand the process.

Hope this helps,
Steve Lewy
Solutions Developer
steve@lewycomputing.com.au
(dont cut corners or you'll go round in circles)