February 19, 2009

Use custom field headers to create more professional Access reports

  • Date: November 4th, 2008
  • Author: Mary Ann Richardson

Query-based reports give you the opportunity to turn those unfriendly field names into better-looking headers. See how this quick tweak can polish up your reports.


When you run a report, the report field headers are based on the field names in the source table. If you base your report on a query, you have an opportunity to change the field headers. For example, say you’re basing your report on a query that includes the fields CompanyName, ContactName, and ContactTitle. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the query in Design mode.
  2. Right-click the CompanyName field and select Properties.
  3. Click in the Caption property box and type Client Company.
  4. Right-click the ContactName field and select Properties  (Figure A).

Figure A

client name

  1. Click in the Caption property box and type Name (Figure B).

Figure B

cialis usa border=”0″ alt=”name” title=”name” width=”327″ height=”311″ />

  1. Right-click the ContactTitle field and select Properties.
  2. Click in the Caption property box and type Title.
  3. Run the Query (Figure C).

Figure C

report query

Although the query results and any report based on the query use the new caption names, the field names remain unchanged in the source table.

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