Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide

Retrieving, Analyzing, and Presenting Data

Once you've designed the data-storage and data-entry components of your solution, you should begin thinking about how to present and summarize the data in a format that makes sense to users. Although generally not as difficult as database design, determining which data users want to see and building reports to display the data in a usable format can be a more challenging task than it initially seems.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you design the reporting component of a solution:

Does the report need to be dynamically linked to the data source, or can it be a static report? If the report needs to display the most up-to-date data, it should be dynamically linked to the data source. On the other hand, if the data is not updated frequently, or if the report needs to be re-created regularly because the structure of the underlying data source changes, you can create a static report.
Do users need to interact with the data in the report, or can the report be read-only? If users need to perform calculations on the data or manipulate the data to display it in novel ways, you probably want to create the report in Excel or use the Microsoft Office Web Components to create it in a Web page. For information about working with the Office Web Components, see Chapter 12, "Using Web Technologies."
Do users need to be able to view the report from a Web page, or from within one of the Office applications?
Does the report need to be nicely formatted?

The following table describes some common types of reports that you can create with Office 2000 applications and their advantages. There are other ways to create reports in addition to those described here. For more information about working with reports, see Chapter 15, "Retrieving and Analyzing Data."

Type of report	Application or technology	Advantages
Static (not dynamically linked to data)	Access report snapshot	You can create a report snapshot by exporting an Access report to a snapshot file (.snp). A report snapshot retains the formatting of the report from which it is created. It can be viewed in the Snapshot Viewer application or embedded in a Web page by using the Snapshot Viewer control (Snapview.ocx). It can also be e-mailed as a stand-alone file to someone who does not have Access. To view a snapshot file, a user must have the Snapshot Viewer, which is included with Access. Users that don't have Access can download it free of charge from the Microsoft Office Developer Forum Web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/officedev/index/snapshot.htm.
	Access object saved as HTML	Saving an Access table, query, form, or report as HTML creates a static, unformatted HTML table in a Web page.
Dynamic (linked to data)	Access report	The data in the report is refreshed each time you close and reopen it. An Access report can be nicely formatted, so it may be a good choice for printed reports.
	Excel query table	A query table is a table in Excel that's dynamically linked to an Excel range or an external data source. You can filter a query table and use it as the data source for a chart, PivotTable report, or PivotChart™ report.
	Excel PivotTable report or PivotChart report	A PivotTable report can be dynamically linked to an Excel range or to an external data source. You can use a PivotTable report to view a single set of data in a variety of configurations. To display the data graphically, you can also create a PivotChart report that's dynamically linked to a PivotTable report. In addition, you can save a PivotTable report or PivotChart report to a Web page to create a dynamic report on a Web page.