I have a main report that has many subreports. For some reason it's sometimes splitting the data in the subreports onto 2 pages eventhough I have it set to Keep Together. For example, this will be on one page:

Specie: Skeletonema
Duration: 72 hrs

and this on the next:

Effective concentration 50%, 72 hrs 500 mg/l


It's grouped on Product code, then Specie. Specie and DUration are under the Specie header and Effective concentration (results) are in the detail. It doesn't do it all the time. Sometimes it will leave a blank space at the bottom of the page and then start the next study at the top of the next and other times it will start the next study at the bottom and continue at the top of the next. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks!

change the page layout to minimise top and bottom margins

but if it wont fit on a page, there HAS to be a page break

i think its possible that the subreport may defer to the main report for pagination

Also, try squishing the controls as close together as possible and remove superfluous lines and decorations that Access might have added. Then minimize the sub-reports as much as you can via the "handles".

Thanks for the help, but it still doesn't work. I've squished things, tried changed properties, and nothing worked. It still wants to split. Any more suggestions?

I'm intrigued. Can you post the part of your db in question?

Well, the data is confidential. I can't show it to anybody outside of the company and it's customers. It doesn't do it on every report. See, since the amount of data on each product varies, the report is a different length depending on the product. Sometimes the report works fine and other times it gets bully and splits it. There is one main report, made up of many subreports (different types of studies), that is based on a query. When a product is selected from a combo box and the control button is clicked the report opens to all the data for that product (filtered through the query (Forms!frmMain!Combo9)). I've tried changing things - shrinking, keep together, group on, etc... on the main report and in the subreports and nothing helps. sometimes it will get one thing to stay together and then another will split! I know it would help to see that part of the DB, but I hope this might give you some clues. Could it be how the subreports are set-up?

you could post a screenshot of your report design - we will see your setup and design, but no data. you can possibly also post access code without breaching your company's confidentiality or IP rights. make sure the shot includes the properties table displaying format of the grouping involved. then the gurus can ask more directed questions.

How do I do a screen shot?

You can press "Print Screen" key on your keyboard to give a screen shot of your screen then open your Paint application and Click Paste. Save-As- .Jpg Format, then you can attach your picture here.


hope that helps

Ok, this particular report is 8 pgs. They vary in length depening on how many studies were conducted on them. It's kind of hard to see, but I circled the part where it split the data. On this report it split the genetic data; on other it will split the Environmental Fate, etc. It also likes to leave blank spaces. This is because it can't fit it all on one sheet, right? Those I'm not so concerned about. Thanks for your help!

The part of the sub-report that goes to the next page is larger than the available area on the expected page, right?

I think that's what's happening, but I've tried squishing everything and it still splits.

I still can't get it to work! I've tried everything! If I get one subreport to fit, then another one splits! Is there some kind of coding I can do so that if it doesn't fit on the page it will start it at the top of the next? I've tried different settings, but none seem to do the trick. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help!

what happens is the page header and footer HAVE to be there, which leaves a remaining amount of space

Access puts the details in that space. obeying rules about keeping together etcetc as far as it can.

If things are variable size (ie can grow/shrink) its hard or impossible to predict where the page breaks appear

So there is no way to stop it from splitting the data, other than inserting page breaks every time it splits? Many people use this database and very few have any knowledge of Access. Would it be better to have permanent page breaks (after each section) and not worry about all the wasted space?

what we really need from you is to look at the code/design - NOT the print preview. you need to make a screen shot of the design view at least, and perhaps and code that might be causing issues, and perhaps a screent shot or two of you properties bar. so far, there's no information here about anything except what the preview LOOKS like... i think we need more info. also, have you searched the forums for similar problems? used various combinations of keywords?

Hopefully this will help! I think the problem is with the main report, not the subreports. If you want me to do the same for them let me know! Thanks for your help!

ok, that looks really weird. it looks almost like a drag and drop issue, rather than proper report design.

to compare, have a look at this image i'm attaching of my own report design form a ddb i'm currently working on. if you look toward the bottom of the image, under the heading "people information" i have a sub_report in there looking like a new internal window thing, where i would have the 'people information'.

if you can get your report design to look similar to mine, then you may be able to get something happening there. "keep together" is not something i've used yet in my reports, but i think the way the subreport is implementated (or put into) in the main report would have an effect...

in the 'design' view, this is where you can properly view how things are aligned and how they fit.

i'm not sure i can help any further except to encourage the more expert users in the forum to push the right questions to get useful answers and actions....

one question, if you double click in the area where the subreports are listed, do you get a new window opening with a bit more of a design look about it? sometimes i've noticed this with forms, but i've not used reports enough to see it there. when it happens in my forms, it KINDA looks like what's happening in your report...

i should also note that sometimes, when this happens in my forms, the only way i can get it to look like a 'proper' design view is if i close the database and re-open it.

You must have a newer version of Access than me. :) I'm using 2000. I inherited this db when I took this job. All of the reports were already made and I knew NOTHING about Access. Within this main report there are many different subreports, but not all the supreports appear if there is no data in them for that particular product. And each subreport varies in length depending on how much data there is. This is what is causing it to split I think. I think the main report is treating all the subreports as if they were all the same thing instead of separate pieces. It seems to be overriding the Keep Together property of the subreports (because it thinks it's all one set of data?). Is there a way to just have it start a new page after each subreport? I've tried this, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. But maybe I did it wrong. Thanks for your help!

from your picture, it looks like you have a supreport containing all your other supreports. i'm guessing this is what forces the 'override' of keep together.

you should (after making a backup) try to make all you subreports separately added to the main report, so that you can have complete control over where they go and how they look.

now, i've never had to do this myself, but i've also never made a supreport FOR subreports, i've always separately put in the subreports (unles i really needed a sub sub report)....

so if it doesn't work, let us know what DID happen, and then we can see if at least it's going the right way.

(sorry for the delay in my reply, i've had a big weekend!)

sorry if the picture wasn't clear, but they are all separate. I had just squshed them together to see if it made a difference. Each subreport was added individually to the main report.

but the picture you attached showed a white section with the list of subreports. it didn't show any 'design' at all. this is what we need to look at to progress.

That's all there is to the design! Sometimes Access displays it with the subreports white and other times it shows them as subreports. It looks white because the subreports are all squished together. I was just playing around to see if that would help things. I'm still very new to Access. And like I said earlier, I didn't design these reports, I inherited them. Here is another look at the report.