Navigating in the Design Environment

Report Header

This section is used for the report title and other information that you want to appear at the beginning of the report. It can also be used for charts and cross-tabs that includes data for the entire report. Items placed in the Report Header print only on the first page of the report. Often the name of the report, the print date, company logo, or "title page" information is included in the Report Header.

Page Header

This section is used for information that you want to appear at the top of each page. This can include such things as chapter names, the name of the document, and other similar information. This section can also be used to display field titles above the fields on a report. Column headings, print dates, and page numbers are common entries in the Page Header.

Details

This section is used for the body of the report and is printed once per record. The bulk of the report data appears in this section. Place the data fields on which you want to report in this area.

Report Footer

This section is used for information that you want to appear only once at the end of the report (such as grand totals) and for charts and cross-tabs that includes data for the entire report. Items placed here print only on the last page of the report. Grand totals, total number of pages, and other summary information are often placed here.

Page Footer

This section usually contains the page number and any other information that you want to appear on the bottom of each page. Page numbers are often placed in the Page Footer.

Note

The names of the five areas can also be shortened to their abbreviated forms (RH, PH, D, RF, and PF). You set the Short Section Name option in the Design View area of the Layout tab in the Options dialog box from the File menu. You can also set this option by right-clicking on one of the section names and selecting Show Short Section Names from the shortcut menu.

Each section is indicated by a section boundary. These lines indicate the separation of the areas and do not print to paper. You can move these bars to change the amount of space reserved for each section by clicking and dragging the section divider to the desired position. However, you can drag the bottom line only to affect the size of the section.