Access™ 2007 VBA Programmer's Reference

11.8. Layout View

If you've designed reports in Access in the past and found that you had to frequently switch between Design view and Print Preview, then Layout view is for you. The primary advantage of using Layout view is its speed in creating something that gives you a sense of how the report will look onscreen or in print. That's because Layout view is a combination of Design view and Browse view, giving you a live view of the data while you perform certain design type tasks, including the following:

• Grouping and sorting

• Adding totals

• Formatting controls and sections

• Changing the AutoFormat

• Inserting labels and image controls

• Adding new fields

• Adding controls to layouts and formatting layouts

• Binding the record source to a table

• Changing the record source

• Changing many other properties

As you can see, there's a lot that can be accomplished in Layout view, all while viewing the live data in the record source to give you a better perspective of the end result. There are, however, a few tasks that cannot be accomplished using Layout view:

• Adding code or setting the HasModule property

• Inserting unbound controls such as text boxes or combo boxes

• Changing the orientation

• Initially binding to a query

• Changing the height of a section

Even with these few tasks, Layout view is still a valuable time-saver when it comes to creating reports in Access 2007.