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in this video i'm gonna demonstrate how to create reports and customized reports in Microsoft Access
2016 this process is going to start with the very basics and then we're going to move into
some of the more advanced features customizing reports in Microsoft Access so in this case we
have a database with three tables and if you wanted to learn more as to how to work with
an Access database please refer to the previous videos on this tutorial so we have three tables
we have a contracts table let's assume we have contracts for customers and we have a customers
table and then we have an invoice is stable so the tables look like this now in our case we
also have those tables linked together which is a common feature of an Access database or any of
the relational databases out there so as such if we go here under database tools and then we
go on their relationships you'll see that we have those tables linked together and if you want to
learn more about these you can check the previous tutorials as well and now we can create reports
based on each one of those tables individually or we can create reports by pulling data from
multiple tables for example if we wanted customer ID from the customers table and the first name and
last name from the customers table then we can also pull for example the contact number we can
pull also the amount and a signing date and the contact type because those two tables are linked
together so let's learn how to do this to create a report we need to go here under create tab and
then we can click here under reports and notice we have this whole section with reports so we can
create we using the design option the blank report start from scratch or we can use the report wizard
if you're just starting with the databases I'll suggest that you start with a report wizard as
that is going to be the simplest way for you to learn how to do this so we go here under a report
wizard and then you'd basically pick the first table that you want to pick the fields from so
in our case we go to the customers table and let's say we want the first name and we want
the last name and let's say we want the street address the city zip state and email so these
are just some of the fields from that table now in our first instance here we are going to simply
create a report just from one table so as we get the idea and then we are going to pull the data
from multiple tables so we go here under next and then we choose how do we want to group those if we
wanted to create groupings of those customers in our case for now we're just going to leave
this alone and then we click on next and then here it's asking us do we want to sort those customers
so we could technically choose to sort those by first name or by last name or by a zip or any
of those fields here so we're going to just say we want to sort them by first name then you can
also choose additional sorting criteria as well subsequent ones typically the first option here
it's going to take priority then it's going to go to the second priority and so on so we click
on next and then it's going to create the report here in the tabular format and then you can also
choose whether you want the orientation to be portrait or landscape if it's a lot of fields
that you're gonna have in your table it's best probably to choose landscape but for now with
one of the number of fields that we have we just can't create it using the portrait view
and then they give it a name here so just customer list we can call this whatever we
want customer list and then it's going to give us a preview of this report we click on finish
here and notice the preview has been created so if I close it here on the right hand side
now notice under reports I have a new customer list report double click on it you know this I
can see all those customers here now you'd say well it's kind of cutting here the email field
on the right hand side how can I change that how can I customize that we can customize any
of those reports that we create a couple ways or you can do this in a couple of ways you can
either go here under view as soon as we have selected the report here we can click on view
and you can change it the layout view here so that's one way to customize it and this is under
the layout view we can go and simply resize the fields so that's one way to do it so notice I'm
just readjusting the width of those fields now probably the address needs to be a little longer
notice I'm going to the right here and such the state doesn't have to be this wide than the zip
I can adjust this accordingly you know this you need to adjust the labels here on the top as well
I'm pressing here control a to select everything and we can also go here under format and we can
change for example the font for this to be a smaller size so you can control how this will
display by utilizing or changing the font visual aspects of it that's one way for you to customize
this if you want it by the way these fields here on the top the labels to be in a different format
you notice I'm holding down the control key here and I'm selecting all those labels now under the
format then I can go here under format and then make this bold I can choose a different font size
and all that type of stuff you know this also under the format we have to select all option
that I did earlier using the control a key on the keyboard if you wanted to change the top or
the heading of this you can simply go here and double click on the heading and then customize
this any way that you want so that's one easy way to customize this report that we just created here
notice that there are different designs here that you can apply as well to this report so notice you
have these new tabs here on the very top under and these are typically referred to as the contextual
tools since we are tinkering and working here with the report module of the database and adjusting
the layout and the design of it now this we have this like design tab arranged tab format that an
even page setup so you can change the look in the field of this specific report now this also
under the design tab you also have these design themes so if I wanted to apply a different look
and feel to this I can apply one of those themes now to go back to the normal view for this airport
we go here under view and then report view and notice it has changed it has been modified with
the changes that we applied earlier another way to customize your report is also to utilize the
design view and I'll go more in depth about this shortly here so you go here on the design view
after we have selected our report and this is kind of more complex and again notice you have
here again the same contextual tools at the very top however you can change here notice it says
page header if I wanted to move this field a little bit farther to the left and adjust the
width and such again these are the labels notice I can do them more precisely from here so you can
adjust the width of those fields here and you get the idea at this point now these would be
just the labels on the top and these would be the actual fields in the bottom notice you can also
adjust the footer what it will show up as at the bottom of the report from here as well so let's
assume that I didn't need the email field you can simply press delete from here and delete both the
label and the actual field the bottom stuff here it's actually the field from the table that it's
linking to the table and then we can close this report here on the top save the changes and now
double click on the report again and notice we do not have that field for the email also if you
wanted to see a preview of this you can click here on the top left and choose print preview
and this is how a report will look at this point now this you also have the footer here the page
footer we can close the preview from here and at this point let's also learn how to add a field
to an existing report so let's assume that this is our report and then somehow we missed adding the e
field to an existing report of of course we could create something from scratch however in certain
cases your report might be fairly complicated and you want to add another field or a couple fields
so here's how you add the other fields to it you can right click on on the report and choose design
view or you can go up here under view under the Home tab and choose design view so you'll kind of
want to do this from the design view now on the right hand side or in the very top here notice
how it says add existing fields so you can click here and add existing fields so notice we have the
list of fields here from our table and we can move this a little bit and then we want to add here the
email field so I simply drag it but we need to drag it notice this white spots here where the
detail for the form is but we don't need to put it under page header we want to put it under the
detail area this will be the content over our report we are kind of linking this field with
the actual table from the customers table here so this is not the label it's actually the data from
the table so we simply drag it and we just drop it where we want it then adjust the positioning
of it on that report how you want it how wide you want it and all that stuff and then notice at this
stage it's not giving us the option to put this the label for it because if I run this right now
I save the design notice it's not going to have the label here on the top as to what this is we
need to basically go under the design view again and and in this case the label is right there but
notice it's kind of like if we move this a little bit you know there's the email label
it's over here to the left what you can do is you can simply click on that email label the one that
came in or the one that it brought in delete it reposition your data field here how you want it
and how why do you want and then above it under the header area that's where you need to create
a new label for this so to add the label on the header what you do is you go here under
the label area here on the design notice there's this icon table here and then choose where you
want that label and how wide you want it and then type in their email hit enter and then reposition
it the way you want it realign it same thing with the one here as well and let's go under
view here and choose report view notice we have this email field created if we wanted to change
the formatting and adjust the formatting again you can simply go under view go under layout view and
then under design apply a different theme or apply the theme that you have from before now this is in
certain spots here we have this or for this we might still need to adjust the formatting notice
this has a border alone around it this field so we might need to adjust the formatting for it and
get rid of the border to change the border there are a couple ways to do that you can either right
click here under the field and notice I'm under the layout view you can do this also from the
design view and if I go here under properties for this object so once I go to the property sheet for
this specific field now this here under border it says to use a border-style:solid and I can
change that so that it's just a parent or nothing and then you can choose the border effect as well
if you need it to if I go here under and close this now that border should not appear anymore
notice it's gone if I wanted to change the size of the font of course go back to layout view and
for this field you can go under the format tab and then change the size to match the rest of the form
and then if we go here under design tab again and if we go and view this report this is how it will
look at this point instead of spending all this time to customize the look and feel of this you
can also go back here and use what's called the format painter so you can copy the formatting of
a specific cell and adjust it for other cells so if I go back here to my layout view and I will
go and undo some of those things that I had done earlier so some of those changes now this right
now if I go back to view here you notice I still have my boarder stuff again here go under format
painter here from the layout view and I can copy the formatting of an existing cell and apply it
to another one so in your to any of these cells go under format here and then use this icon right
here the format painter that copies the formatting of an object and applies it to another object so
click on it and then go to the other object any of these here and apply it and now it's all changed
automatically so that's the easier way to do this then close it click on Save Changes and now you
can double click on it and this is your report and this is the print preview of this report so
this is how you create a report this is how you customize the report and how you remove fields
from a report and also how you add additional fields to the report if you have an existing one
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