Report groups on new page

[Bill Murray]

I'm trying to create a group on a report, where each group is on a new page.

There's a checkbox on the Region tab of Group Properties, named Start each group on a new page.

Checking that always produces a blank first page, so that for a 3 group single page (per group) report, 4 pages are produced.

Is that normal behavior? Do I misunderstand what that checkbox is supposed to do?

I can place a page break in the group footer, and that works for every group with at least 1 detail record, but groups with no detail records always at least show the group header (which could just contain text or labels), followed by the group header for the next group that does contain records in the detail section.

Another strange observation: checking the Keep with detail checkbox in the Headers section on the Group Properties Head/Foot tab crashes Alpha on advancing to page 2 when in preview mode. This is with multiple systems (Vista, Win7) running build 2727-3521.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get groups to start on a new page but avoid the blank page at the start of a report?

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Report groups on new page

Checking that always produces a blank first page, so that for a 3 group single page (per group) report, 4 pages are produced.

There are myriad combinations of

start each group on new page
keep group together
report header, footer, continuation header
page header, footer, continuation header
group header, footer, continuation header
detail section, header, footer, continuation header
justify any of the footers to bottom of page

You will have to experiment to see what combination will produce your desired output or provide a sample database for more precise advice.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Report groups on new page

The continuation headers always seem to give me this kind of grief.

[Bill Murray]

Re: Report groups on new page

Thanks for the replies. The problem with the myriad combinations is that what seems to be the most straightforward doesn't work, namely Start each group on a new page.

I attached a simple example of a 5 record table that should produce 3 groups. Clicking that setting (if I understand it correctly) should produce 3 pages, but it produces 4.

Should it work?

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: Report groups on new page

If you don't need any kind of intro to your report then remove the report header. If you want each page to have some kind of repeating header for each page then add a PAGE header to the group.

A report header is the initial section of the report, before any detail pages (including groups) are printed. You could include a multi page document in the report header.

A page header appears at the top of every page to which it is assigned. There is also a hierarchy of which page header takes precedence if different report sections have a page header defined.

[Bill Murray]

Re: Report groups on new page

Thanks, Tim. Removing the report header does stop the group header from producing a blank page.

But I need both a report header and a group header. And that doesn't explain why clicking that checkbox produces a blank page, since the 2 types of headers aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Maybe the answer is simply that this just doesn't work the way the checkbox label suggests?

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: Report groups on new page

What is the purpose of the report header. ie what will it contain or what info will it display?

[Bill Murray]

Re: Report groups on new page

The kind of things report headers usually contain: report title, report date, company name, etc.

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: Report groups on new page

Sorry, I should have posted this before asking the question

Removing the report header does not really keep the group header from creating a blank page. The blank page is caused by the fact that there is a report header defined for the report and you have not placed anything in the report header. The report header begins the report. It does not begin the page.

Now that you have removed the report header edit the properties of the group. In the Head/Foot tab of the dialog check 'has page header'. This will add a header area to each page.

See this page

[Bill Murray]

Re: Report groups on new page

Thanks for your suggestion, Tim, but it's not quite what I need. A page header and a report header are 2 different things.

In the simple example I cooked up, the report header is blank, as you said. But it doesn't matter if you add one or not. It prints the report header, then nothing for the rest of the 1st page, then starts the 1st group on page 2.

And I suppose that is one interpretation of the Start each group on a new page setting, since the 1st group IS a group, so it triggers a new page, hence page 2. In the strictest sense, that checkbox is doing what it says. But what it should say is Start each group after the first group on a new page.

It is possible to get some combination of headers that don't trigger this effect, but it seems that it's not possible to have a report header and a group header without doing so. And we haven't even gotten to Tom's favorite, continuation headers.

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: Report groups on new page

Bill,

It is good to see we are on the same page (pun inteneded) as to page and report headers. :)

Yes, I was taking the label Start each group on a new page to mean to include the first group as you explain. Personally, I think that is the behaviour I would prefer. I guess that is why I did not consider your requirement till you outlined it a bit more clearly in you last post.

I thought of something else that may work for you as a work around. Don't use the Start each group on a new page setting but place a page break (from the toolbox) in the group footer. This allows you to use the report header. Trouble with this method is that it forces the report footer on to a new page. Just moves the problem to the end of the report.

[Bill Murray]

Re: Report groups on new page

Thanks for the suggestion, Tim. I had the same thought in my original post, and it may have the undesired consequence you mentioned (I don't recall checking for that), but it had another one that killed it for me: groups with no detail records got a detail header.

In thinking about this more, there are 2 ways to act on the Start each group on a new page checkbox. One is to force the new page at the start of the header. This is what Alpha is doing. I originally thought a better approach would be to force the new page after producing the footer. If Alpha's goal was to separate groups from report headers & footers, it would need to force a new page before each group footer and after the last group footer, but it doesn't do that. The result of just forcing a new page after either the header or footer, as you sort of suggested, means you can have the inconsistent result at the beginning of a report or the end of the report, but you can't eliminate it.

I now think it would be better to be able to separate report groups completely from report headers/footers (as in distributing a sales report grouped by sales rep to each rep), and that can be accomplished by simply putting a page break at the start of the report footer. So, I'm happy because as a result of the discussion I've learned that I no longer want what I originally wanted.