Print certain records once report is generated...How?

[NRK]

I have a form that allows users to add new Test Cases to the database. There is a button (Print) that runs a parameter query based on the Test Case Category (field in form).

So, as an example, a user wants to print records (Test Cases) that are from the Firewall Category. They click Print and the report is generated. But, now, the user may want to print only selected records on this report.

This is where I am stuck...I would like to have some type of Print Options box that allows users to specify which records they would want to print. I have not been able to figure this out and would appreciate any advice/thoughts that you may have.

Thank you, in advance.

 

[pdldavis]

Hi, I do something similar to what your are describing. I have a Yes/No field in my table labeled 'noshow'. The default value for the field is 0 (zero).
In the underlying query for the report this field is included with the criteria '0'.
I have a subform that lists out all the records as a result of a combobox choice on the main form. The user then checks the records he does not want to see. This changes the 'noshow' field to -1 (Yes). The underlying query will only print records with a '0' in the 'noshow' field.
There's any number of ways to do this but this is pretty simple. The problem with it is remembering to reset the checked fields if you don't want them permanently deselected for printing.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.

 

[NRK]

pdldavis -
Thanks for the information. I will try that out. My only concern is that each category could have up to 500 Test Cases. So, if a user is trying to print a report from the "Add" form on the fly, this method will not work due to the sheer number of records that they would have to select/deselect.

Does that make sense?

 

[pdldavis]

Yes, that makes sense. There are a couple things you can do that might help. One would be to group these test cases by area, date, or some other sort of identifier and then give the user a number of choices to print from. If you try to give the customer everything....it rarely works out. A number of well thought out pre-defined choices usually does.
As an example, I have a construction status report where the user can print results by time frame, priority, responsible person, craft, work area, open items and completed items. These are all the possible combinations the user could possible want. So, if you ask the user what exactly it is he wants to see and restrict his options to that, the sorting problem becomes more manageable.

Another thing I have seen is in essence filtering by form and then using those results as the basis for your report. There are some good examples of that out there on various Access related sites. It is a bit more cumbersome and requires more user input but is extremely flexible.