October Quick Tip

By Scott Babcock

Add White Space to Access Reports for Better Readability

The more records output to an Access report, the harder it becomes to read. When you see your employees taking out their rulers to read your reports, it’s time to add some white space between the lines. To add a blank line after every five records, follow these steps:

• 1. Open your report in Design view.
• 2. Click the Text Box tool, and then click and drag below the fields containing data in the Detail section to create an unbound text box. Delete the text box label.
• 3. Click the Text Box tool, and then click and drag to create a small unbound text box beneath the first box. Delete the text box label.
• 4. Right-click the first text box and select Properties.
• 5. Click in the Name property box and type txtCounter.
• 6. Click in the Visible property box and select No.
• 7. Click in the RunningSum box and select Over All.
• 8. Click in the ControlSource box and enter =1.
• 9. Click in the CanShrink property box and select Yes.
• 10. Right-click the second text box and select Properties.
• 11. Click the Name property box and enter txtSpacer.
• 12. Click in the CanShrink property box and select Yes.
• 13. Click the drop-down list of the property list and select Detail.
• 14. Click in the CanShrink property box and select Yes.
• 15. Click the Event tab.
• 16. Click in the On Format property box and select Event Procedure.
• 17. Click the Build button and enter the following code at the prompt (be sure there is a space between the quotation marks):

  If (textCounter Mod 4) = 0 Then
  textSpacer = " "
  Else
  textSpacer = Null
  End If

To adjust the amount of white space between the lines, simply resize the textSpacer control to the desired height.

Resources

• Richardson, Mary Ann. “Add more white space to long Access reports for better readability" Add more white space to long Access reports for better readability | Microsoft Office. 18 September 2007. Tech Republic. 19 September 2007. < http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=252&tag=nl.e056 >.

Go back?