ok...so my guess was pretty close.
This report consists of a page header which includes specific student data like ID, grade, homeroom and so on, 3 groups all of which have the headers and footers suppressed, a detail section listing the classes, grades, absences, etcetera, that is limited in size by the size of the report footer which also includes student specific data..
so...your report is set up like this
Report header (suppressed)
Page header (student data)
Group1 header (suppressed) (unknown field)
Group2 header (suppressed) (unknown field)
Group3 header (suppressed) (unknown field)
Details
Group 3 footer (suppressed)
Group 2 footer (suppressed)
Group 1 footer (suppressed)
Page footer (suppressed
Report footer (student data)
This is how you should show your report to us so we can understand what is going on.
As it stands you will only be able to run this report for a single student...I imagine a parameter of student ID to generate the report....your Page Header information is coming from the first record that is returned and your report footer info is coming from the last record.
In order to do what you want you will have to restructure your report and input via parameter a range or series of Student ID's
I would structure your report this way
Report header (suppressed)
Page header (student data)
Group1 Header (student data)
Group2 header (suppressed) (unknown field)
Group3 header (suppressed) (unknown field)
Group4 header (suppressed) (unknown field)
Details
Group4 footer (suppressed)
Group3 footer (suppressed)
Group2 footer (suppressed)
Group1 footer (student data) (new page after every even count of group 1)
Page footer (suppressed)
Report footer ((suppressed)
Now you have a chance at printing several student cards/page
ok...now for the size of the sections
The Group 1 header and footer student info should be unvarying so let us say there is 1" of material for each section.
so your report card would look like this physically
--------------------------------------------------------
/\ Student Info header
|
1"
|
\/
--------------------------------------------------------
/\ Student details
|
|
3.5"
|
|
\/
--------------------------------------------------------
/\ Student Info Footer
|
1"
|
\/
--------------------------------------------------------
Now how many "lines of detail are available to you is dependant on the font you use. Usually an 8 font is the smallest readable font for practical pusposes.
Once you establish that then you create one subsection of detail for every record of detail printed (one record of detail may in fact be composed of 2 lines)...so that the 3.5" of detail space will be totally used. (ie. if on detail record takes 0.5" then you have room for 7 detail records)
We can control which section of the detail will be printed with each detail record and make Blank detail sections fill the balance of the sections that are not used.
the footer for Group 1 can also be sized to position the printer for the second record...after the second student ID we can have the printer jump to a new page .
If this sounds ok to you we can proceed with details of formulas etc to do this....you have to provide details on the groups involved and the number of detail sections you can handle.
Jim Broadbent
The quality of the answer is directly proportional to the quality of the problem statement!