Report generates blank first page

[JHite]

I'm using AC2003. Sequence of events:
a. Tool -> Relationships
I show my tables & relationships and arrange them to fit landscape mode.

b. File ->Print Relationships
This generates a report in portrait mode with name/date etc. in report header section, an empty page header section, and diagram of relationships in detail section.

c. I go into setup, change to landscape orientation and adjust margins so my "print" is not too wide for the page.

d. I view report in design view. There is no grouping, no page breaks in report header, page header or detail sections, all page break controls are set to NONE. There is only one column.

e. However, when I look at the report in data view or print it, a blank first page is always generated. I thought maybe the problem was in the report header or page header, so I turned both of them off leaving only the detail section; but I still get the same result - a blank first page.

Thanks for any help in fixing this.

Janice

[Stewart Ross]

...
e. However, when I look at the report in data view or print it, a blank first page is always generated. I thought maybe the problem was in the report header or page header, so I turned both of them off leaving only the detail section; but I still get the same result - a blank first page.

Hi. Check two properties of the detail section of your report. These are the Force New Page property, which should be None (Before Section will print a blank page), and Keep Together, which if it is set to Yes can cause a blank page to be shown when it is unable to keep the whole section together.

Although you mention that there are no groups, the report is presumably sorted on one or more fields, so check also in the grouping and sorting properties that Keep Together is set to No or With First Detail on each criterion, for the same reason as above.

These are the main causes of page throws I'm aware of. I would imagine your report does not contain event procedures on any of its sections which would force page throws, so if the keep togethers and force new page properties are OK I'd be stumped for another explanation for your difficulties.

-Stewart

[JHite]

Thanks for the reply, Stewart. I did check the two properties you mentioned and made sure Force New page was set to None and that Keep Together was set to No. I'm still getting the blank first page. There is no sorting or grouping as this report is automatically generated from Tool --> Relationships, and simply shows the tables and relationships that the user elects to "show" in the configuration the user has laid out.

This extra blank page is not a show stopper for me, just a minor nuisance and I don't have the time to pursue it right now. When I do have time, I may go back and start with a blank Relationships design and add tables one at a time and generating the report after each one to see if I still get a blank first page and if so what seems to cause it.

Thanks again for your advice. If you want to consider this thread closed, that's ok with me.

Janice

[Stewart Ross]

Hi. I tried this out on one of my more complex databases and ended up with 3 blank pages at the start. When I looked at the detail section of my relationship report it was 31cm long - way beyond the normal page limits.

I suspect that the wizard creating the report is stretching the detail section to fit the data, and that there is little in practice we can do about it.

Your pragmatic approach of treating it as a minor nuisance is a good one, I think.

-Stewart

[JHite]

Thanks for this last bit of information. It's always good to know someone else can independently duplicate the problem and your observation about the length makes sense. My report stretched over 3 - 11" x 8.5" pages (in landscape mode). I became so focused on the width issue that I didn't even consider the length.

Regards,
Janice