Group formatting question

Hi. I have 2 groups associated with a data table, one on company name, and then one on management,

Company Name Management License # Phone Southwest Bank & Trust Southern Management, LLC 123456 123-123-1234 789123 321-456-7890 838485 888-111-5555

However, I would like the table to display the information in this fashion, so that the grouped items appear as part of the details, rather than on a separate line. How can I accomplish this? Thanks in advance.

Company Name Management License # Phone Southwest Bank & Trust Southern Management, LLC 123456 123-123-1234 789123 321-456-7890 838485 888-111-5555

You can definitely do this. Did you use the wizard and a "stepped" format, by any chance, when you created this report?

Based on your second sample format, I would start by making a single group that has both expressions in it, and I would remove both those group header lines. I would put the company and management expressions directly in the detail line, and use "hide duplicates" to suppress the values after detail row #1.

HTH,

>L<

|||Thanks, Lisa. No, I did the report using the designer not the wizard. I'll try your suggestion and see what I get.
|||Hi, Lisa. Your suggestion worked like a charm. I set the group headers not to show; is there a way to see the group headers after unchecking the box that shows them? I can't seem to find a way to edit those groups after hiding them. Thanks.
|||

>> is there a way to see the group headers after unchecking

Yep. When you rightclick on an element of the table, you should have an option in the context menu that allows you to select the parent, something like "select table1". Or, if you click on the little grey square box at the top-left corner of the table (above the square row indicators on the left) you can select the table. However you do it, when the selection marquee is around the table, rather than a table element, if you rightclick and select Properties you will get into the Table Properties dialog.

You will see a Group tab in that dialog. When you select it (is this starting to sound like Zork?) you should see your group in a listbox; if you click the Edit button in that Tab with your group selected it brings you back to that Group dialog that you want.

There may be a better way. There are probably several -- although it's good to know about that Table dialog, so I want to make sure you do <s>.

My main thought right now is... why do you need the groups at all, why not eliminate them? Order your data properly, and the groups should be "natural" in this case, unless you have some aggregate functions that need them?

Alternatively, this might be a case for "details grouping" rather than "groups" -- although frankly I'm not sure I understand that "feature". You will find an example/walkthrough here http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155903.aspx . You can get to "details grouping" by rightclicking on the row indicator for the details band, or from the Table Properties dialog (there is a Details Grouping... button in the Group tab).

>L<

|||Thanks, Lisa, for the very informative and detailed explanation. It's very much appreciated