vb.net pdf417 Uses of Reports in Visual Studio .NET

Encode USS Code 128 in Visual Studio .NET Uses of Reports

Reports are the best way to create a printed copy of information that is extracted or calculated from data in your database. Reports have two principal advantages over other methods of printing data.

Reports can compare, summarize, subtotal, and total large sets of data. Reports can be created to produce attractive invoices, purchase orders, mailing labels,

Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out Reports are designed to group data, to present each grouping separately, and to perform calculations. They work as follows:

You can define up to 10 grouping criteria to separate the levels of detail. You can define separate headers and footers for each group. You can perform complex calculations not only within a group or a set of rows but also

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entire report. As with forms, you can embed pictures or charts in any section of a report. You can also embed subreports or subforms within report sections.

You can explore reports by examining the features of the sample reports in the ContactsDataCopy.mdb sample database. A good place to start is the rptContactProducts report. Open the database, and go to the Database window. Click the Reports button on the Object bar, and scroll down the list of reports until you see the rptContactProducts report, as shown in Figure 14-1. Double-click the report name (or select it and click the Preview button) to see the report in Print Preview a view of how the report will look when it s printed. Note

All the reports in the sample databases are set to print to the system default printer. The default printer on your system is probably not the same printer that I used as a default when I designed the report. Some of the sample reports are designed with margins other than the default of 1 inch on all sides. If your default printer cannot print as close to the edge of the paper as the report is designed, Access will adjust the margins to the minimums for your printer. This means that some reports might not appear exactly as you see them in the book, and some data might appear on different pages.

The rptContactProducts report is based on the qryRptContactProducts query, which brings together information from the tblContacts, tblProducts, and tblContactProducts tables. When the report opens in Print Preview, you ll see a view of the report in the Contact Products window, as shown in Figure 14-2. When you open the report from the Database window, the report shows information for all contact product sales.

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You can see all the reports described in this chapter in the LawTrack Contacts application. Start the application by opening the database (Contacts.mdb), opening frmSplash, and then signing on as me you don t need a password. To see the final version of the Contact Products report, for example, click the Products button on the main switchboard form, and then click the Print button on the LawTrack Contacts Products form to open the Product Reports dialog box. Choose Product Sales by Contact. Also select the Current Product Only and All Records options, and then click Print. You ll see the report in Print Preview for the product that was displayed on the Products form. You can also explore the reports by clicking the Reports button on the main switchboard. All reports in the application have a custom menu and toolbar that prevent you from switching to Design view when running the application. When you re finished looking at the reports in Contacts.mdb, be sure to go back to the ContactsDataCopy.mdb file to follow the remaining examples in this chapter.

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Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out You can expand the window in Print Preview to see a large portion of the rptContactProducts report at one time. Use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to position the report so that you can see most of the upper half of the first page, as shown in Figure 14-2. You can also turn off Num Lock and use the arrow keys to move up, down, left, and right. If you are using a standard SVGA screen (800 600 pixels), select 75% in the Zoom Control box on the toolbar to see more of the report. If your screen resolution is 1024 768 or higher, you should be able to easily view the report at 100%. To view other pages of the report, use the navigation bar at the bottom left of the window, as shown here.