Header and Footer Sections in Access Report

In Microsoft Access, the different header and footer sections in reports serve distinct purposes to structure and enhance the presentation of data. Here's a detailed explanation based on the provided search results:

1. Report Header and Footer Sections:
   • Report Header:
     • Purpose: This section appears once at the beginning of the report, typically on the first page. It's used for:
       • Displaying the report title or a cover page (which might span multiple pages if necessary).
       • Including static information like the company name, report subtitle, or any introductory text.
       • Adding logos or other branding elements.
     • Behavior: The content in this section does not repeat on subsequent pages, making it ideal for information that pertains to the report as a whole but should not appear on every page.
   • Report Footer:
     • Purpose: The report footer appears once at the end of the report, generally on the last page. It's used for:
       • Summarizing data, like totals or averages over the entire report.
       • Including copyright notices, disclaimers, or any concluding remarks.
       • Adding information like the date the report was generated or printed.
     • Behavior: Like the header, it's for content that should appear only once at the end of all data.
2. Page Header and Footer Sections:
   • Page Header:
     • Purpose: This section appears at the top of every page in the report, providing:
       • Column headers for tabular data, ensuring they are visible on each page for context.
       • Page numbers, particularly useful if you don't want them in the footer.
       • Any repetitive information that should be shown at the top of each page, like the report name for multi-page documents.
     • Behavior: It repeats on every page, ensuring consistency and readability across the document.
   • Page Footer:
     • Purpose: Positioned at the bottom of each page, this section is typically used for:
       • Displaying page numbers if not in the header.
       • Adding page-specific information like "Page X of Y".
       • Including dynamic data like the current date or time for each page's printout.
     • Behavior: Like the page header, it repeats on every page, providing continuity and navigation aid through the document.

Additional Considerations:

• Control: You can add or remove these sections via the "View" menu or right-click context menu, but they must be added in pairs (e.g., you can't have a footer without a header).
• Visibility: Sections can be resized to zero height if not needed, or their visibility can be controlled for specific pages or print views.
• Data Interaction: Headers and footers can include static text, data from fields (if there's only one dataset), or calculated values like sums or counts specific to the page or report.

These sections collectively help in organizing the data presentation, making reports more professional, navigable, and informative. They cater to both the layout and the functional aspects of report design in Microsoft Access.

You can work with the sections that the wizard creates quite easily. As you have already learned, working with controls is the same no matter what section they are in. If you need to move a control from one section to another, use the cut and paste feature.

• Changing the size of Section:
  To change the size of a section move the cursor to the top edge of the gray bar that marks the bottom of the section. Click and drag that bar up or down to change the size of the section. Access will not let you make the section smaller than it needs to be to fit all the controls in their current position, so if you cannot make the section as small as you want, you may need to move some controls.
• Adding and removing Sections:
  The easiest sections to add or remove are the Page and Report Headers and Footers. You can easily add or remove them from your report by choosing the View>>Page Header/Footer and View> Report Header/Footer from the menu.

The secret to mastering Design view is understanding its five different sections.
Although you can leave some sections blank, every report includes them in exactly the same order:

1. Report Header: This section appears once at the beginning of your report, on the first page. This section is where you add titles, logos, and your own personal byline.
2. Page Header: This section appears just under the report header on the first page, and at the top of each subsequent page. It is the place to add page numbers, and you can also use it for column headers in simple, tabular reports like the product catalog.
3. Detail: This section appears once immediately after the page header, and it is the heart of all reports. The trick is that the Detail section is repeated once for each record in your report. In a simple tabular report, this section represents a single row.
4. Page Footer: This section appears at the bottom of each page. If you do not use the page header for page numbers, then this section provides your other option.
5. Report Footer: This section appears once at the very end of the report. You can use it to print summary information, copyright statements, the date of printing. The content in these sections looks a fair bit different from what you see in other views, because Design view does not show the live data. Instead, it includes placeholders where Access can insert the necessary information each time it runs the report. When you run the product report, Access grabs the values from the ProductCategory: ID, ProductName, Price, and Description fields and then shuffles them into the matching boxes.

You will need a bit of time before you are comfortable manipulating the content in Design view. First, you need to learn that you can adjust the size of each section. This ability makes sense, because different reports allocate different amounts of space to each region.
In the next lesson, create a calculated control.

In this exercise, use header and footer sections to refine a report.
Working with Sections - Exercise