Using Report Views

You can open database objects in different views, depending on what you want to do. For reports, you use Print Preview (or Layout Preview) to check how the report will look. Use Design View when you want to change the structure or layout of the reports. In this task, we'll explore how to open a report and switch to Design View.

To open a report from the database window:

1. In the database window, click Reports on the Objects bar to display your list of reports.
2. To automatically open a report in Print Preview, double-click the name of the table. Print Preview is the default view for reports.
3. To change to Design View, click the View button on the toolbar. In Design View, you can change the layout or content of the report.
4. To switch back to Print Preview, click the View button again.

Print Preview shows you all the data in your report. Layout Preview shows you just the layout of the report using sample data.

Previewing and printing reports is covered in detail in other lessons (Previewing a Report and Printing a Report).

1. You can open a report directly in Design View from the database window by clicking the name of the report once to select it, then clicking the Design button on the database window toolbar.
2. You can right-mouse click on a report and select Print Preview to open the table in Print Preview or select Design View to open the report in Design View.
3. You can switch views by using the View menu.