ACC: How to Create a Table of Contents or Index for a Report

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Access does not have a table-of-contents feature or an index feature for reports. However, you can use a table to store descriptions and page numbers, and then create a report based on that table to use as a Table of Contents report. You can use the same method to create an index.

To create a report that generates a table of contents, follow these steps.

CAUTION: Following the steps in this example will modify the sample database Northwind. mdb (or NWIND.MDB in version 2.0 or earlier). You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb (or NWIND.MDB) file and perform these steps on a copy of the database.

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb (or NWIND.MDB in version 2.0 or earlier).
2. Create the following table and save it as Table Of Contents:

         Table: Table Of Contents
         -------------------------------
         Field Name: Description
            Data Type: Text
            Field Size: 15
            Indexed: Yes (No Duplicates)
         Field Name: Page Number
            Data Type: Number
            Field Size: Long Integer
            Indexed: No
   						

   NOTE: Make sure the Description field is the same data type as the field on your report that you will use as a table of content heading.
3. Create a module and type the following lines in the Declarations section.
   
   In Microsoft Access 2.0, 7.0, and 97:

            Option Explicit
            Dim db As Database
            Dim toctable As Recordset
   						

   In Microsoft Access 1.x:

            Option Explicit
            Dim db As Database
            Dim toctable As Table
   					

4. Create the following procedure.
   
   NOTE: In the following sample code, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this code in Access Basic.
   
   In Microsoft Access 2.0, 7.0, and 97:

            Function InitToc ()
               ' Called from the OnOpen property of the report.
               ' Opens the database and the table for the report.
               Dim qd As QueryDef
               Set db = CurrentDb()
               ' Delete all previous entries in Table of Contents table.
               Set qd = db.CreateQueryDef _
                   ("", "Delete * From [Table of Contents]")
               qd.Execute
               qd.Close
               ' Open the table.
               Set toctable = db.OpenRecordset("Table Of Contents", _
                  DB_Open_table)
               toctable.index = "Description"
            End Function
   						

   In Microsoft Access 1.x:

            Function InitToc ()
               ' Called from the OnOpen property of the report.
               ' Opens the database and the table for the report.
               Dim qd As QueryDef
               Set db = CurrentDB()
               ' Delete all previous entries in the Table of Contents table.
               Set qd = db.CreateQueryDef("Delete TOC Entries", "Delete * _
                  From [Table of Contents]")
               qd.Execute
               qd.Close
               ' Open the table.
               Set toctable = db.OpenTable("Table Of Contents")
               toctable.index = "Description"
               Exit Function
            End Function
   						

   In all versions:

            Function UpdateToc (tocentry As String, Rpt As Report)
               ' Call from the OnPrint property of the section containing
               ' the Table Of Contents Description field. Updates the Table Of
               ' Contents table.
               toctable.Seek "=", tocentry
               If toctable.nomatch Then
                  toctable.AddNew
                  toctable!description = tocentry
                  toctable![page number] = Rpt.page
                  toctable.Update
               End If
            End Function
   					

5. Open the Products By Category (or List Of Products By Category in version 2.0 or earlier) report in Design view and set the report's OnOpen property as follows:

         =InitToc()
   					

6. Select the CategoryNameheader and set the header's OnPrint property as follows:

         =UpdateToc([CategoryName],Report)
   						

   NOTE: In version 2.0 or earlier, type a space in Category Name.
   
   Note that when you preview or print the report, the Table Of Contents table is updated. The Table Of Contents table records the page on which each new category begins.
   
   NOTE: If you are previewing the report, page through all the pages of the report to ensure that the Print event is triggered for all records.
7. Create another report based on the Table Of Contents table to print the table of contents.

To print the table of contents, print the Products By Category (or List Of Products By Category in version 2.0 or earlier) report first, and then print the Table Of Contents report.