Defining (or refining) Report Fields at runtime

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I'm working with a co-worker to develop a database that has quite a few
fields in it. The fields are a series of checkboxes that denote training
topics that employees need. Not all employees will receive all the training.

What I'm trying to do is make a report that will function as a sign in sheet
for any of the training she conducts. I'm getting the 'too many fields'
error message when I try to create the report using the wizard. I got the
same thing when I tried using the wizard to create a form so I added them
manually. I'd rather not do that for the report.

I know I can accomplish what I want if I had all the fields on the report
(invisible) and use a WHERE statement in the DoCmd.OpenReport command
limiting the names to the those that have the specific checkbox checked.

I could do the same thing using a MakeTable query specifying all the
appropriate records and then point the Report to the MadeTable but that seem
kinda amatuerish as well.

Is there a way I can achieve this w/o having all the fields on the report.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
You have a normalization problem. You should not be using topics as fields.
If you add more topics, you have to add fields, controls, and modify other
stuff. A better system would be normalized. This wouldn't be to different
from Orders and OrderDetails. Could you imagine what the Orders table would
look like if each product was a separate field in the table?
 
Ok. That's good to know.

What I'm getting from your email is that the Table Format should look
something like

EmployeeID
TrainingName

The problem w/that is she is managing/monitoring 600 employees with what
looks like about 100 different training topics. Most employees received
quite a bit of training. This would require her to do a lot of data entry
(ie, entering many records for each person....Joe Smith Hearing
Conservation Joe Smith.....Personal Protective Equipment Joe
Smith......Fire Extinguisher Training)

This would be a lot of Data Entry on her part and the checkboxes would
things go faster. To be honest I'm trying to get people here to start using
Access for Databases rather than making lists in Excel. If push comes to
shove and there is too much involved w/switching they'll keep using Excel.
Not your problem, I know but just venting!

I'd rather do extra work up front so that I get the opportunity to show them
how much more useful Access is over Excel.

So I'm still looking for a method of doing this. I already know how to do
it, as I posted previously but that method seems amateurish.

Thanks for you reply.

Jeff
 
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