Report Wizard

Article
11/14/2006

With this wizard, you can create reports using one free table or one table or view in a database. You can use this wizard to quickly create and save for future reuse, reports that you can run at any time. Whenever you run the saved report it will display or print the then-current information from a table or view.

To access the Report wizard

From Tools menu, choose Wizards, and then click Report.
In the Wizard Selection dialog box, choose Report Wizard.

Step 1 – Select Fields

In this step, you can choose a free table or a table within a database as the source for your report. You can select fields from only a single table or view.

To select the fields for your report

Use the Databases and Tables controls to locate and select the table you want to use.
In the Available fields window, select one or more fields you want to use from the selected table, and use the arrow buttons to move them to the Selected fields window.

Step 2 – Group Records

In this step, you can use data grouping to categorize and sort your records, so they are easier to read. When you select a field in one of the Group by drop-down boxes, you can choose Grouping Options and Summary Options to refine your grouping selection. You can choose up to three fields for grouping.

Choosing Grouping Options opens the Grouping Intervals dialog box that makes it possible for you to select levels of filtering that are relevant to the type of data contained in the fields you selected for grouping.

Choosing Summary Options opens the Summary Options dialog box that makes it possible for you to specify from the following list the type of calculation to perform on specific numeric fields:

Summary Option	Return
Sum	Total of values in the specified numeric field.
Avg	Average of the values in the specified numeric field.
Count	A count of the number of records containing a non-nil value in the specified field.
Min	The minimum value in the specified numeric field.
Max	The maximum value in the specified numeric field.

You also can choose Detail and Summary, which provides group subtotals and totals, Summary only, which provides only totals, or No Totals for the report. Use the Calculate percent of total for sums to track the percentage of the total represented by each subtotal.

Fields that you select as groupings here are not available in Step 3 - Sort Records.

Step 3 - Choose Report Style

In this step, you can choose the basic format of your report from the styles built into the wizard. When you click any of the styles, the wizard updates the graphic in the magnifying glass as an example of the style.

Step 4 - Define Report Layout

In this step, you specify the number of rows or columns of the report and whether the report is to be portrait or landscape oriented.

When you specify a number of columns or select a layout option, the wizard updates the graphic in the magnifying glass as an example of the selection.

Note If you specified a grouping option in Step 2, the Columns and Field Layout selections in this step are not available.

Step 5 - Sort Records

This step makes it possible for you to specify one or more fields by which to sort the records in your report.

Choose up to three fields or an index tag that already exists in the database to determine the order in which your view results will be sorted. Select Ascending to sort the view in ascending order or Descending to sort the view in descending order.

Step 6 -Finish

In this step, you can choose how and when to use the report.

Save report for later use
Makes it possible for you to save the report as a file, which you can open later.
Save report and modify in the Report Designer
Saves the report as a file and then opens it in the Report designer, so you can make modifications to it.
Save and print report
Saves the report as a file and then immediately prints it.

If the number of fields you selected cannot fit on a single line within the width of your report, the fields will wrap to the following line. If you do not want the fields to wrap, clear the Wrap fields that do not fit check box. If you have used a table or view from a database, you can choose Use display settings stored in the database, otherwise this option is not available. Click the Preview button to view the report without exiting the wizard.

After you save the report, you can open and modify it like any other report in the Report designer.

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