Report Columns
By Richard Rost
5 days ago
Create Multiple Columns in Microsoft Access Reports
In this lesson, we will walk through how to create multiple report columns in Microsoft Access, making your Access Reports look more like a newspaper layout instead of a single long list. I will show you how to adjust column settings, set up text wrapping, and manage properties like Can Grow, Can Shrink, Keep Together, and Force New Page to create cleaner, more professional reports. We will also discuss using backups and how column layouts affect your report headers, footers, and detail sections. This is a beginner-level tutorial based on a customer notes report.
Kendra from Fremont, California (a Platinum Member) asks: How can I make my Microsoft Access report use two columns instead of one long list? I'm printing a customer notes report for my office, and half the page is just blank space on the right, so it looks kind of sloppy. I'd like it to look more like a newspaper layout and still keep everything easy to read.
Members
In the extended cut, we will learn how to use VBA programming to make the customer's name repeat at the top of the next column in a multi-column report and include a "Continued" notice, so that when a record spills over to the next column or page, readers know which customer the data belongs to. I will show you how to implement this step-by-step for a more professional, polished report.
Silver Members and up get access to view Extended Cut videos, when available. Gold Members can download the files from class plus get access to the Code Vault. If you're not a member, Join Today!
Prerequisites
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Keywords
TechHelp Access, multiple columns, newspaper style report, column width, page setup columns, column spacing, row spacing, can grow can shrink, detail section properties, keep together, force new column, report design, text wrapping, customer report, design view, print preview, grouping levels, report header footer
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Intro In this lesson, we will walk through how to create multiple report columns in Microsoft Access, making your Access Reports look more like a newspaper layout instead of a single long list. I will show you how to adjust column settings, set up text wrapping, and manage properties like Can Grow, Can Shrink, Keep Together, and Force New Page to create cleaner, more professional reports. We will also discuss using backups and how column layouts affect your report headers, footers, and detail sections. This is a beginner-level tutorial based on a customer notes report.Transcript Ever wish your Microsoft Access Reports could look like a clean, two-column newspaper instead of one long wall of text?
Welcome to another TechHelp video brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I'm your instructor, Richard Rost.
Today we're going to talk about creating multiple columns in your Access Reports with proper text wrapping. I'm going to show you how to split your data into columns and make it flow neatly from one column to the next so your reports look a lot more professional and easier to read, just like a newspaper. Well, like most newspapers. Of course, we're not talking about the content of the newspaper, but I digress.
Alright, let's take a look. Today's question comes from Kendra in Fremont, California, one of my platinum members. Kendra says, how can I make my Microsoft Access Report use two columns instead of one long list? I'm printing a customer notes report from my office and half the page is just blank space on the right, so it looks kind of sloppy. I'd like it to look more like a newspaper layout and still keep everything easy to read.
Alright, no problems, Kendra. What we're going to do today is I'm going to show you how to take that single column Access Report and make it two columns. Then we'll talk about some text wrapping and make it look pretty.
Now, this is a beginner-level video, so nothing too fancy or advanced. But I am going to base today's report on the report that we built in this video, my customer report, which is also a beginner video. Go watch this video first so you have a copy of this report to work on because this is what we're going to be doing in today's class. Go watch this first, then come back and build that report or something.
And don't worry, members, in the extended cut, I do have some advanced VBA tricks for you. You're going to love this one. We'll get to that later.
Alright, so here I am in my TechHelp Free Template. This is a free database. You can grab a copy off my website if you want to. In here, I've got a customer form, a customer list, and a customer report that takes all the customers and prints them out. Of course, you know this because you watched the video where we built it.
Now, what I'm going to do is, instead of doing customer, customer, customer, we're going to make two columns. It's going to go customer, customer, customer, customer, customer, customer, customer. This way, we're going to go down and then go across to the other side.
Before we get started, I want to get in the habit of teaching you to always make a backup of the object that you're working on. We're going to make some major modifications to this, and it's always good to back up the object. Back up your database file. Of course, back up your system every night. We're going to back up the object we're working on.
So I'm just going to click on that, copy, paste, control. I'm going to call it CustomerR-Backup. Do I break my own naming convention? Yeah. Because that's just a backup.
Then later on, if you want to clean up your database after you're happy with all your work, just come up here and type in "backup." You'll see all your backup objects. Easy to do.
Now let's open up the CustomerR in design mode. Just to keep things simple for now, I'm going to delete this big notes field. We'll come back to it later. We'll grab a copy of it out of the backup. Let's get rid of family size and credit limit and all that stuff. Bring this up a little bit. We're just shrinking things up a little bit.
Now, to make this two columns, we're going to go up to Page Setup, go to Columns, and we're going to change "Number of Columns" here to two. Save it. Close it and preview it.
Some data may not be displayed. What is this? It's not enough horizontal space for the page. Hit OK. And it's not working. Why is it not working? Let's take a look. Go back in here, Design View. Let's go back into that columns thing again. Page Setup. Columns.
Let's take a look at what it says here. Column Size. Oh, OK. Column size width 7.9 inches. That's way out here. The problem is this box right here is "Same as Detail." We have to turn that off because our detail section goes way out to here. That's the whole width of the page. We're roughly, let's call it eight, so this needs to be less than four. This needs to be like maybe 3.8 or something small like that. Don't worry about height for now.
Now let's try it. Hit OK. Save it. Close it. Open it. Oh, there we go. Now it's working. Now you can see I have number 1's over here. Let's zoom over here. I hate that I have to keep resizing this every time. Number 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. Looks pretty. Good.
Let's take a look at what other options are in that box so you're familiar with them. Go back to Page Setup. Columns. We have "Number of Columns." That's the big one. It tells how many columns of data you want across on the page. So if it's set to two, you're going to get two sets. If it's set to three, you're going to get three. Make sure that your column width matches that. So if you make three columns, it's got to be less than eight divided by three, whatever that works out to. Always leave yourself a little bit of extra space too. That's why I always bring this in just a little bit more, because I've got quarter inch margins out here right on the margins. See how we have a whole separate video on margins?
Next, you've got "Row Spacing." Usually, you're going to leave this at zero, but this controls the vertical space between rows as Access moves down the page. Leave it at zero unless you're feeling cramped and want more space between the rows.
"Column Spacing." That's the space between the columns. That's the horizontal gap between your columns. So if your columns feel too tight together, bump this up a little bit.
"Column Sizing" and height: width, obviously, is how wide each column is. It's important because your report detail section has to fit inside this width.
No, this does not apply to your header sections. Your report header, your page header, and your footers don't listen to columns; that's always just one column across the whole page. It's only the detail section and any grouping levels that you might have. Again, the height is usually not important unless you care, like if you're doing mailing labels and you have to have an exact width and height. Then you specify a height. But this will also be pushed by the "Can Grow," "Can Shrink" properties.
Remember, every text box in here can grow or shrink. There's the properties "Can Grow," "Can Shrink," and so can the detail section grow and shrink. So if you're doing labels, make sure you turn that off so it doesn't get too big to fit on the label. Again, I've got a whole separate set of videos on Can Grow and Can Shrink. I'll put links down below.
Same as Detail: Again, turn that off. Then "Layout." Do you want to go across then down or down then across? Well, for a newspaper, you generally want down then across.
What does that mean? You saw earlier how it went 1, 2, 3, 4 like that. Let me show you. Let's go back to across then down just so you can see what it looks like. Right-click, Print Preview. See, 1, 2, 3, 4. That's across then down. Whereas if we switch back to down then across, it's going to go 1, 2, and then wrap up here for 3 and 4. So watch. Hit OK, save it, right-click, Print Preview. See, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. That makes more sense. That's more like a traditional newspaper would be. You read to the bottom of one column, then you go to the top of the next column and down.
Now, let's go get that notes field and bring it back into here. That's another reason why we made a backup of our report before we started messing with it. Go into Design View. I'm going to take this notes field, we're going to copy it, come over here, and paste it in. It's nice and big, so we're going to make it smaller. Grab the corner down here, do this, do a little bit of that, and you can keep it nice and small like that just for design because we've got Can Grow, Can Shrink on.
Let me save this one. Just close this again. Leave my backup alone. So open up this guy, open up its properties, make sure that Can Grow and Can Shrink are on. Can Grow, Can Shrink. Yes and Yes for that. Remember, also the detail section has to also be able to Can Grow, Can Shrink. Otherwise, the label or the text box will grow and it won't have any room to grow if the detail section can't grow.
Save it. Close it. Open it again. See what we've got. It looks OK. It stops here and then continues to the next one over here. Let's see what the rest of the pages look like. That kind of spilled over there. I'm seeing lots of blank space still. I don't like all that blank space. How do we get rid of that blank space?
Let's go back to Design View. In the detail section's properties, open that up. You're going to look for the property that says "Keep Together." "Keep Together" says you have to keep this whole thing together in the same column or on the same page if possible. In other words, if it's physically too big to fit in a column, it's going to spill. But you don't have to keep it all together. So set this to No. Save it. Close it. Open it. Look at that. It's flowing a little more nicely.
Let me see. Do this again. See? This comes down here. James T. Kirk starts down here and it spills over to the next column. Deanna Troi starts down here and she spills over onto the next page. If you want to see two pages, there's two pages. Now it's flowing nicely like a river. It's flowing like the warp plasma in Geordi's engines.
Another thing you can do, if you don't want this to flow like that, there's also a "Force New Page" option. I don't use this often, especially after something like this, but in the detail section, there's "Force New Page," which you can set to before the section, after the section. So in other words, every time a customer is done, it'll force a new page; or you can force a new row or column. So if you want each customer to be in a column of itself, you could say "Force New Column" after section. What that'll give you looks like this. It finishes a customer, then starts the next one on the next column. Now, this one's too long, so it will wrap, but it used that little teeny tiny bit and then wrapped to the next one for the next customer. You can see each customer then is forced to start on its own column. If you want that, if you want to be able to cut these into strips, then sure, whatever.
Again, I'm just dumping out the bucket of Legos for you folks; you can put them together however you want. I'm just showing you all the pieces. I'm going to put this back to None though.
Now, with this newspaper feel, if you like what you got, let's close it. Open it back up again and see what we have here. Let's do this and go to two pages. I love the way this looks, but I have one little issue. James Kirk, and then it reads down here and then it comes up here, and now my eye has to go back to the previous column to know who this is.
Then down here, here's Deanna's start, and I flip the page and oh, here's the end of Deanna's stuff, but now I have to go back to the previous page to see who that was. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get the customer name to repeat on the top of the next column? That's what we're going to do in the extended cut for the members. You can see right here, here's Richard Rost and it goes down to James Kirk and then the next column, it says James Continued. See what I did there? "James Continued." That's pretty cool, huh?
Now, that does require a little bit of VBA programming. I'll show you how to make the customer's name repeat at the top of the next column, and it'll have a clear little "Continued" there so there's no confusion. It's just one of those tricks that gives your reports that more professional, polished feel.
If you want to learn more about this stuff in my courses, if you're still a beginner, in Access Beginner Level 9, we cover a lot more with report design: page header and footer, report header and footer, the Can Grow, Can Shrink properties, all kinds of stuff in there. For a little more advanced users, in Access Expert 7, I cover more with reports. We do postcards and all kinds of cool stuff. We do letters and postcards, lots more with reporting in this lesson. I'll put links to both of these down below.
Today you learned how to turn a single column report into multiple columns and make better use of your page space.
Now, post a comment down below. Let me know how you like today's video and how you plan to use this in your database.
That's going to do it for your TechHelp video for today, brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I hope you learned something.
Live long and prosper, my friends. I'll see you next time, and members, I'll see you in the extended cut.Quiz Q1. What was the main goal of the video tutorial?
A. To show how to add VBA code to Access reports
B. To create forms for customer entry
C. To make Access reports display in multiple columns like a newspaper
D. To export reports to Excel automatically
Q2. Before making major changes to a report object, what does the instructor recommend?
A. Locking the object
B. Making a backup copy of the object
C. Changing the database password
D. Compacting and repairing the database
Q3. How do you change the number of columns in an Access report?
A. Use the Grouping and Sorting feature
B. Add more text boxes manually to the design
C. Go to Page Setup, then Columns, and change Number of Columns
D. Right-click in Layout View and select Add Column
Q4. What setting causes the column width to be too large when first changing to multiple columns?
A. Same as Detail is checked, matching the report detail section width
B. The margin is set to zero
C. Too many grouping levels are used
D. The report is in Landscape orientation
Q5. Which section(s) of an Access report are affected by the column settings?
A. Only the report header and footer
B. Only the page header and footer
C. Only the detail section and any grouping levels
D. All report sections including headers and footers
Q6. What property should you check if a text box with notes is not expanding to fit its content?
A. Anchoring is set to Both
B. Can Grow and Can Shrink are enabled for the text box and the detail section
C. Hide Duplicates is on
D. The text box background color
Q7. What does the "Keep Together" property do in the detail section of a report?
A. Prevents data from overflowing into the next page
B. Ensures an entire detail section stays within the same column or page if possible
C. Forces each record to start on a new page
D. Increases the margin between columns
Q8. When would you use the "Force New Column" setting in a report?
A. To ensure each record starts on a new column
B. To automatically save the report as a PDF
C. To repeat column headers on every page
D. To add extra space between rows
Q9. What layout direction is more like a traditional newspaper?
A. Across then down
B. Down then across
C. Random order
D. Only across
Q10. What advanced feature was mentioned for members in the extended cut?
A. Adding subreports
B. Repeating the customer name at the top of continued columns using VBA
C. Connecting multiple databases
D. Exporting reports to Word
Q11. Why would you adjust the "Column Spacing" value in report page setup?
A. To fit more columns on one page
B. To control the vertical space between rows
C. To control the horizontal space between columns
D. To increase the height of the detail section
Q12. If report detail rows look too cramped, what should you consider adjusting?
A. Row Spacing property
B. Column Spacing property
C. Number of Columns
D. Page Margins
Answers: 1-C; 2-B; 3-C; 4-A; 5-C; 6-B; 7-B; 8-A; 9-B; 10-B; 11-C; 12-A
DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.Summary Today's video from Access Learning Zone covers how to give your Microsoft Access reports the appearance of a crisp, two-column newspaper layout rather than a continuous block of text. I'm going to show you exactly how to split your report into multiple columns and have your data flow smoothly from one column down and over to the next, just like you see in most newspapers. Creating a clean, easy-to-read report is not just a matter of style; it also improves readability, making your information much more accessible.
Let me answer a recent question about this topic. Kendra in Fremont, California wanted her customer notes report to make use of the empty space on the right side of the page. She wondered how to turn her existing single-column report into a two-column format to take better advantage of the printed page.
This is a beginner-level tutorial, so I won't be getting too advanced here. I'm working from a basic customer report I demonstrated in one of my earlier videos. If you're following along, I highly recommend you make sure you've already created the sample customer report from that video. That way, you'll have a starting point to apply what I'm teaching today.
First, before making any changes to your report, it's wise to make a backup copy. I always encourage my students to back up whatever object they're working on. Later, when you're satisfied with your work, you can easily identify and remove any old backups by searching for "backup" in your database.
When you're ready to make changes, switch to design view for the report you want to modify. For this demonstration, I'm keeping things straightforward by temporarily removing large fields like the Notes field and unnecessary data like family size or credit limit. This allows us to tidy up the design before focusing on column layout.
To add multiple columns to your report, go to the Page Setup tab and find the Columns option. Here, you can set the number of columns you want. By default, the column width will probably be set to use the entire page. That's usually too wide. Make sure to uncheck "Same as Detail," then manually set the column width so that two columns will fit across your page, allowing for margins. For example, with an eight-inch-wide page and two columns, each should be under four inches. You should also allow a little extra space to accommodate margins and prevent crowding.
Once you save and preview your report, you should see the data arranged in two columns. You can use the "Column Spacing" option to adjust the gap between your columns if you feel they are too close together. Similarly, "Row Spacing" can help if your rows appear cramped, but it's fine to leave it at zero for most reports.
Remember, these column settings only affect your detail section and any grouping levels within the report. Report headers, footers, and page headers will remain full width and are not subject to the columns setting.
As you adjust column width, note that your detail section - and any controls inside it - must fit within the width you specify for each column. If you're printing labels or need precise widths and heights, there are separate settings for that as well, but most standard reports do not require you to change the default height.
An important property to keep in mind is "Can Grow" and "Can Shrink," applied to both your text boxes and the detail section. This lets your fields automatically adjust in size if their content is longer or shorter, which is very helpful for fields like notes. Make sure those properties are set to Yes if your report will contain varying amounts of information.
Also, consider the "Layout" option when setting your columns. The "Down, then Across" layout will fill one column from top to bottom and then jump to the next column, which is typical for a newspaper-like format. If you choose "Across, then Down," the report will fill each row across all columns before moving to the next row, which is less common in these types of reports.
Once you have your columns set up, you might want to bring back fields like Notes. You can copy them from your backup and resize if necessary. Again, verify that "Can Grow" and "Can Shrink" are enabled to ensure that fields expand or contract as needed.
Sometimes you'll notice blank spaces or awkward column breaks. Check the "Keep Together" property of the detail section. If this is set to Yes, Access tries to keep each record together in one column, which can cause spillover and gaps. Set "Keep Together" to No to let information flow more naturally across columns and pages.
Another advanced option is "Force New Page" or "Force New Column," both found in the detail section's properties. If you set "Force New Column" after a section, each record starts in a new column. This can be useful if you want clear record separation or need to cut your report into strips.
At this point, you should see your data flowing neatly down and into the next column, making full use of the page space. However, you might spot an issue when multi-record notes or content extend from one column to another or even onto the next page - it can become unclear which record the text belongs to as your eye moves from the end of one column to the top of the next. For an even more polished, professional touch, in today's Extended Cut for members, I'll show you how to repeat the customer's name at the top of each continued section or column, including adding a "Continued" note. This technique uses a bit of VBA programming but really helps clarify your reports and improves readability.
If you want to deepen your skills, I cover further report design techniques, including headers, footers, and the Can Grow and Can Shrink properties, in my Access Beginner Level 9 class. Advanced report options, like postcards and mail merge, can be found in Access Expert 7. Links to both are available below.
Today, you've learned how to transform a basic single column report into a sophisticated, multi-column layout that makes the best use of your printed page and presents your data in an appealing, readable format.
You can find a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends.Topic List Creating backup copies of Access report objects
Opening a report in design view
Deleting and restoring fields in a report
Adjusting the report layout to remove extra fields
Accessing and configuring Page Setup options
Setting the number of columns in a report
Adjusting column width to fit multiple columns
Understanding row and column spacing settings
Configuring column layout direction (down then across)
Enabling and configuring Can Grow and Can Shrink properties
Reinserting and resizing memo fields in the report
Setting Keep Together property for detail sections
Using Force New Page and Force New Column options
Previewing multi-column reports and report flowArticle If you have ever printed a Microsoft Access report and found that it looks like a single, long column running down the page with a bunch of blank space on the right, you might wish your reports could look more like a newspaper. Newspapers typically use multiple columns to maximize space and improve ease of reading. Fortunately, you can achieve the same effect in Microsoft Access by configuring your reports to use multiple columns, allowing the text to flow neatly from one column to the next.
Let me walk you through how to design a two-column report in Access, make the data flow in a logical way, and ensure your text wraps and aligns for a professional appearance.
Start with a basic report that lists your data, such as a customer report. Before making any changes, it is a good habit to create a backup of your report object. Simply copy and paste the report in the Navigation Pane and rename the backup, so you can restore it if needed.
Open your report in Design View. If you have fields you do not need for this specific printout - like some extra details or large text fields - temporarily remove or shrink them to simplify the design as you set up columns. You can always re-add these fields later.
Next, go to the Page Setup menu at the top of Access and select Columns. In the Columns dialog box, change the "Number of Columns" to 2. By default, Access sets each column to be the same width as your report's detail section, which is usually the full width of the page. If you leave "Same as Detail" checked, Access will not be able to fit two columns and you will see an error. Uncheck "Same as Detail" and set the column width. For an 8-inch wide page (minus margins), each column must be less than 4 inches wide, so set the column width to something like 3.8 inches. You should leave a little space between columns by adjusting the Column Spacing setting if the default feels too tight.
Other options in this box include "Row Spacing," which controls the vertical space between detail rows. Usually, 0 is fine, but you can increase it if the content feels cramped. The "Column Spacing" option determines the horizontal gap between columns. "Column Layout" lets you specify the order in which Access fills the columns. For most newspaper-style reports, select "Down, then Across." This means Access will fill the first column from top to bottom, then continue at the top of the next column, just like you would read a newspaper. "Across, then Down" would fill columns left to right across a line before starting a new row.
It is important to note that column settings in Access only apply to the Detail section and any group footers or headers within the detail. Report headers, page headers, and footers will always span the full width of the page, regardless of column settings.
Once you have two columns set up, you might want to add fields back into your report, such as a notes field for customers. You can copy the field from your backup report and paste it back into your working report. Resize it to fit into the column as needed. Make sure both the Detail section and any text box you add have the "Can Grow" and "Can Shrink" properties set to Yes. This allows the fields to expand vertically as needed for longer text entries, making the report flexible for varying content lengths.
If your text still seems to leave too much empty space or words are pushed onto the next page when they could fit in the current column, check the "Keep Together" property on the Detail section. By default, this property may be set to Yes. Setting it to No allows Access to split records across columns and pages if needed, so text can continue naturally rather than forcing large blank areas.
Alternatively, if you want each record to always start at the top of a column or a new page, you can use the "Force New Page" property in the Detail section. Setting this to "After Section" will put each record on a new page, while "After Column" will ensure each record starts in a new column. However, for a traditional newspaper look where entries flow smoothly from column to column, you can leave this at None.
In summary, here is what you need to do to produce a classic multi-column Access report. Copy your original report as a backup. Open your report in Design View and remove any unnecessary fields for now. Go to Page Setup and choose Columns, then change the number to 2 or more columns as needed. Adjust the column width so two columns will fit the page, making sure to allow space for column spacing and page margins. Check that the Detail section and any text fields have Can Grow and Can Shrink set to Yes. Turn off "Keep Together" in the Detail section to let content flow freely between columns. Add any extra fields you need, resize them to fit, and view your report in Print Preview to check the final result.
One final touch for a truly professional output is to consider repeating identifiers, such as a customer name or group header, at the top of a new column when a record continues from a previous one. This advanced technique requires some VBA programming to detect when a record flows onto a new column and to display an appropriate label like "Continued." Although this is more advanced, it helps reduce confusion for readers by making it clear which content belongs together.
With these techniques, your Access reports will make much better use of page space and look polished, clean, and easy to read - just like a newspaper. Experiment with the different column and spacing settings to get the layout that works best for your data and how your users will consume it. Now you are ready to transform your single-column reports into attractive, multi-column printouts that your team or clients will appreciate. |
