Why Create Reports?

You've learned many ways to organize and view your data, but until now each method has focused on on-screen use. Forms help with data entry on-screen, and queries help you find information and display the results on-screen.

You can print any table, form, or query, but the results will be less than professional looking because those tools are not designed to be printed. Reports, on the other hand, are designed specifically to be printed and shared with other people. With a report, you can generate professional results that you can be proud of, whether you're distributing them on paper or publishing them on the Internet.

There are several ways to create a report, ranging from easy-but-limited (AutoReport) to difficult-but-very-flexible (Report Design view). The intermediate choice is Report Wizard, which offers some flexibility along with a fairly easy procedure.