Chapter 10 - Creating Cross-Tab Reports

Cross-tab reports are a powerful way to create summaries of data in a spreadsheet style format. They generate summary data in a grid where the rows and columns represent groups of data. This provides the user with a report format that is easy to read and uses a small footprint on the page. After this chapter you should have a good understanding of how to use cross-tab reports and you'll also get some practice with creating them.

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Modifying the Cross-Tab Properties

After getting the empty cross-tab object on the report, you need to modify its properties so that it knows what data to display and how to display it. Right-click on the cross-tab object and select Cross-Tab Expert. This opens the Cross-Tab Expert shown in Figure 10-5.

Figure 10-5. The Cross-Tab Expert dialog box.

CAUTION
The Cross-Tab Expert shown in Figure 10-5 is what you'll see when you right-click on an existing cross-tab object and select Cross-Tab Expert. It is very similar to the Cross-Tab Expert dialog box you see when creating a new report using the Cross-Tab Report Wizard, but not exact. The wizard's dialog box is missing a few key buttons. The New Formula and Edit Formula buttons are not available. Secondly, the Group Options and Change Summary buttons are missing. The primary drawback to this is that the Change Summary button lets you show a percentage of the overall total in the summary field. The dialog box presented by the report wizard box only let's you choose from the basic summary functions. The Group Options button lets you customize the sorting order of the groups. Thus, if you want to create new formulas, have advanced summaries, or customize the groups, then you have to wait till the wizard is finished and go back and edit the cross-tab

CAUTION

The Cross-Tab Expert shown in Figure 10-5 is what you'll see when you right-click on an existing cross-tab object and select Cross-Tab Expert. It is very similar to the Cross-Tab Expert dialog box you see when creating a new report using the Cross-Tab Report Wizard, but not exact. The wizard's dialog box is missing a few key buttons. The New Formula and Edit Formula buttons are not available. Secondly, the Group Options and Change Summary buttons are missing. The primary drawback to this is that the Change Summary button lets you show a percentage of the overall total in the summary field. The dialog box presented by the report wizard box only let's you choose from the basic summary functions. The Group Options button lets you customize the sorting order of the groups. Thus, if you want to create new formulas, have advanced summaries, or customize the groups, then you have to wait till the wizard is finished and go back and edit the cross-tab

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