Adding and Customizing Groups

Adding and customizing groups is very similar to working with the other sections of a report. Add a new group by right-clicking on the report and selecting Insert | Group. This displays the dialog box shown in Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3. The Insert Group dialog box.

The Common tab has two frames for changing how the group is displayed and changing the sort order of the values within the group. The top frame sets which field the group is based on and the sorting order of the group values. The lower frame, titled Group Options, only lets you make a few changes to how the group is formatted.

Selecting the Grouping Field

The first dropdown box at the top of the dialog box selects the field that the group is based on. You can choose from a current field on the report, any fields in the current data source, or a formula field. When selecting a group field that is a data type of Date, Time or DateTime, you have more options for how to group. A new dropdown box appears that lets you group on the specific part of the date or time (e.g. month, quarter, hour, etc.)