Advanced Grouping Options

The majority of the time that you add a group to a report you just need something simple that displays the group name and sorts it in ascending order. This is the default behavior when you add a group to the report and nothing additional is required. But there are times when you need to customize the group, such as changing the sorting order, overriding the group name field, and setting how the group headers are displayed. Making changes like these, and more, are available within the Change Group Options dialog box.

On the Group Expert dialog box there is an Options button located at the bottom right corner. Clicking on the Options button opens the Change Group Options dialog box where you set the advanced grouping features.

Figure 3-10. The Change Group Options dialog box.

The Change Group Options dialog box has two tabs: Common and Options. The Common tab sets the grouping field and the sorting order. The Options tab customizes the group name and how the group is displayed.

Clicking on the Options button lets you modify the grouping properties of the field currently selected on the Common tab. Make sure you have the proper grouping field selected before clicking the Options button.

Selecting the Grouping Field

The top dropdown on the Common tab selects the field the group is based on. Most likely you will leave this as is, but if you need to change the field that a group is based on, then this is the place to do it. You can choose from a current field on the report, any fields in the current data source, or a formula field.

If the grouping field is a Date or Time data type, you have more options for how to group the records. A new dropdown box appears that lets you group on the specific part of the date or time (e.g. per week, month, quarter, hour, etc.)