Are you using a single sheet printer or continuous feed? Is each sheet of
paper the same size as you have set in the Page Setup dialog? You say that
you have page 1 setup, but after that it creeps down. Are you designing more
than one page into the report or just one page and letting the report handle
the rest?
Essentially, this should be similar to setting up the printing of labels.
You probably want only a detail section in the report, no headers or
footers. The detail section's Can Shrink and Can Grow properties should be
set to No to maintain the height of the section to fit the cards. The height
and width of the detail section should match the height and width of a
single card (measure them with a ruler if you have to, this measurement and
those that follow need to be exact). Then, with the report open in design
view, go to File|Page Setup. With 3 cards per sheet, I'm going to assume
they are in a single column. Set the margins to match the space at the top,
bottom, left, and right from the edge of the sheet to the first card edge
encountered. Portrait or Landscape as appropriate, but probably Portrait. It
would be unusual to do labels in Landscape. On the Columns tab, the number
of columns is 1, the Row Spacing will be the space between each card on the
sheet. Column spacing would be the distance between each card horizontally
if there was more than one column of cards. With the column count at 1, this
should be grayed out. The column size should be "Same as Detail" for a sheet
with a single column of labels. If you have more than one column, the column
size should match the size of a single card/label and uncheck the "Same as
Detail" box. The Column Layout will control whether the cards are filled in
left to right then top to bottom or top to bottom then left to right if you
have more than one column. Again, for 1 column, this should be grayed out.
To cross check your entries, top margin + bottom margin + (detail height *
3) + (row spacing * 2) should equal the height of the paper (i.e. 11"). Left
margin + right margin + (column width * number of columns) + (column spacing
* (number of columns -1)) should equal the paper width (i.e. 8.5"). Also,
(column width * number of columns) + (column spacing * (number of columns -
1)) should equal the detail width. If the sheet has multiple columns and
this forces you to widen your detail section, make sure that you keep all
controls within the column width. For example, if the column width is 2",
then all the textboxes, etc should be within the left 2" of the detail
section when you design the report so that Access has room to repeat them
across as needed to fill the columns.
--
Wayne Morgan
Microsoft Access MVP
I have a paper form (employee ID cards) that prints 3
cards per page. I've been playing with margins and page
size for several days now. Is there any way to control
the field spacings on this type of report?
I've been able to setup page 1 with no problem, however,
from the second page on the margin (top) shifts down
about ½ an inch per page. Is there any way to force each
additional page to be printed the same as the first??
I have tried using both a report and a form in hopes of
controlling the field and page spacing.
