Report Design Question 1

[drtree]

Hi All,

This is more of a general question but I was just wondering if anyone had read any books on general report design (things like how one should layout data, what elements to emphasize, repeat, etc)? If so, can you recommend any? I am finding that at times, my reports, although they show all the information, don't tend to be very effective - the users sometimes get confused or don't focus on what they need to.


Thanks,

Doc Tree

 

[Katy44]

Good question, I'd be interested to know too if anyone has heard of anything.

 

[kskid]

For me, it's finding out what the user needs to accomplish their job. Executives needs summary data to monitor the business, Supervisors need department summary or audit reports to monitor data integrity and end users need details to do their job.

As far as report structure, it will evolve as you get to know your user set. On 90% of my formal reports, it has evolved into the following.

Report Header
Depending on the reader, I optionally use this section to post some of the ground rules or instructions for the report

Page Header A[ul][li]Department, Division or Organization's Name[/li]
[li]Report Title[/li]
[li]Run Parameters. In many cases, I show the date parameters used to create the report. For example, if the report covers the next 30 days, then

CStr(CurrentDate,"MM/dd/yyyy")+"  To  "+CStr(CurrentDate+30,"MM/dd/yyyy")

[/li]
[li]Page M of N. Since most of my reports are in PDF format, this is helpful to users trying to print selected pages.[/li]
[li]Data date and time so I know when the data was extracted.[/li][/ul]

Page Header B[ul][li]Column headings in bold[/li]
[li]I format this section in a silver color or lighter[/li][/ul]

Detail
if there is extensive amoount of detail, I may optional apply color like the old green bar paper to every other row with the following formula for easier reading.

if remainder(RecordNumber,2) = 0 then
    color(231,249,210)
else
    nocolor

Page footer[ul][li]file name and path (so I know which report the user is referencing when he or she calls about problems or changes)[/li]
[li]author[/li][/ul]
Report Footer
Grand totals

Hope this helps