Tutorial

Lesson 9
Creating and running reports
The process of retrieving and organizing data from a database is called reporting. Reports help
you organize and view data in groups.
In this lesson you will:
1 create a dynamic report in Table View
1 create a report with grouped data and totals using the New Layout/Report assistant
1 learn how to save a report as a PDF file and send it as an email attachment
About summary reports
Summary reports present just the totals of your data; they do not break information into smaller
groups. Subsummary reports, also referred to as reports with grouped data, categorize
information by a particular field or fields, allowing you to group information hierarchically. This
subsummarized information can then be subtotaled, averaged, or counted.
A summary field is a type of field you can specify when you define fields in Table View, in the New
Layout/Report assistant, or in the Manage Database dialog box. Summary fields allow
calculations across all of the records in your found set. In general, when you need to total data
across a number of records, you need to use a summary field.
Create a dynamic report in Table View
Dynamic reporting in Table View is a quick way to format and display summary data. Here you will
create a quick report that displays:
1 the annual fees paid by each customer
1 subtotals for fees paid by each company
1 a grand total for fees collected from all three companies
Examine the data in Table View
1. Open Sample Copy.fmp12.
2. Choose Data Entry from the Layout pop-up menu in the layout bar, if it’s not already selected.
3. In Browse mode, click Table View in the layout bar.
Fields from the Data Entry layout appear as column headings in Table View.
Hide data not needed in the report
By default, Table View displays all fields on the current layout. You can hide the fields you don’t
want to show in this report. When you hide fields in Table View, no data or field definitions are
removed from the layout or database.
1. Move the pointer over any column heading until the down arrow appears. Click the down
arrow, then choose Table View > Modify in the shortcut menu.