Form or report?

[geolemon]

I'm still relatively new to Access - this question is due to my moderate experience with forms and my complete and total lack of experience with reports.

I want to create a report (I use that term conceptually) that prompts an end user to input an assembly number, and kicks out a report that sums up what and how many of each component is used in an assembly.

So, my first question is - how do I create a report that prompts a user for input? I need to learn this regardless!!
(damn tutorials I've found are useless)

My second question I think confines me to the land of forms and subforms:
Let's say I wanted a special version of that "report" that placed a control button at the end of each row (one row per component), that would allow me to launch a second report/form, querying this time to show me what other assemblies that particular component was used in and in what quantities.
Is it possible to do this? Has anyone done this? I'm picturing a subform displaying "continuous forms", one per component - and I need a "bound" control, to allow me to reference data in that particular record, right?

If I created such a system, where my results were displayed as a continuous form, is there any way to nicely print the resulting form/subform in it's complete form? A printable form if you will? Or will I be limited to "screen-shot" type printing capabilities?

Thanks for help!

[geolemon]

I had a thought that I could create a query with a WHERE clause that references something that doesn't exist, like "WHERE AssyPN = [UserInput]".

Then, I could build a report off that query...
And build a message-box type form with a control called "UserInput" asking the user to input the assembly he wants to limit the report to, and launching the report when the "OK" button is pressed.
I don't know if the scope of the variable will still be alive if I did that though-
does the query inherit what's active from the form since it's bound to the report?

The layers would go like this:
Form --> Report --> Query
In other words, does it behave like this?
Form --> [Report --> Query]

The former would possibly not map "UserData" in the query to the "UserData" form control.
The latter would allow me to reference the "UserData" control in the query.

Anyone know which situation reflects reality?

[youmike]

I think you need to start by understanding Access terminology. A report is something that is printed and by definition it cannot therefore have any buttons that you can click. A form is something that is displayed on the screen, so it CAN have a command button.

You talk about using a continuous form to display salient information about each record. I'd say that is the right starting point and part ofv the information displayed should be the unique identifier of the record. I'n the form design there is a property called record selectors. You should set this as "visible". This will cause a small bx to appear at the left end of each record. If you click this, a black arrowhead appears. In the form footer, you should have a command button and its "On Click" event should include a DoCmd action to open a detail form with the "WHERE" clause set to restrict the display of information to the chosen record.

As far as tutorials are concerned, I'd suggest you spend some time examining the MS sample database, Northwind. It is a really useful learning aid.