Distribute records in multi-column subreport

[Steve Jensen]

This has probably been asked in one form or another or years, but I thought I
would try one more time.

How do you make a multicolumn subreport distribute the records evenly across
the columns in a down first then across manner?

(And by the way, setting the Can Grow property of the subreport control to
No is not a good solution, because when you do this, you have to leave room
for x rows even when there aren't that many (or any at all). In that case,
it leaves blank space, which wastes space (and paper if printed), is visually
annoying, and comes off as very amateurish.)

Surely after 7 major releases Access can do something seemingly simple, but
I still don't see how to do it.

 

[John Spencer]

As far as I know you cannot accomplish what you want in a sub report. At
least there is nothing built-in to Access to do this.

If your data is such that you can figure out a way to calculate the column
the records should be in you could sort by the calculated column and then by
whatever other fields you wanted and use Across then Down.

For instance if you can establish a unique ranking of the records in a query
and then apply the modulo operator to the ranking (2 columns would be rank
mod 2) you should be able to emulate down then across.
--
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
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