Create a report on your own

You can use the steps in this topic to guide you through creating a report from start to finish. You'll use many of the steps to create every report. The others you'll use when you create a particular kind of report — for example, one that requires grouping records by categories or calculating totals. You need to use only the steps that are relevant to the type of report that you're creating. For other tasks related to creating reports, ask the Answer Wizard.

See examples of what reports are and how they work

  1. Start your report

    Create a blank report and select a record source

    See examples of the kinds of tools you can work with when designing a report

  2. Sort or group the data in your report

    See an example of grouped records on a report

    Sort records

    Group records

    Change the sorting or grouping order

  3. Add headers and footers

    See how you can use sections on a report

    Add a report header and footer or a page header and footer

    Change the size of a header, footer, or other section

  4. Display data, text, and totals on the report

    See how you display data, text, and totals in text boxes, labels, and other controls

    Display data from the underlying table or query in a text box

    Display a title or other informational text in a label

    Calculate a total for one record in a text box

    Calculate a total for a group of records or all records in a text box

    Display the current date in a text box

    Display the page number in a text box

    Get more information about text boxes, labels, and other controls

  5. Format, move, size, and align labels, text boxes, and other controls

    Make the text in a label, text box, or other control bold, italic, or underlined

    Change the font, font size, and line weight for all text, data, and lines on the report at once

    Move a text box or other control and its label

    Change the size of a label, text box, or other control

    Align labels, text boxes, and other controls to each other

  6. Preview or print the report

    Set margins and page orientation

    Preview the report

    Print the report