Conditional Keep-Together in Access Report (1 Viewer)

dkrause48

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Hello. I am having a problem with the keep-together property in an access report. My report lists books for a library. It sorts them first by author, and then by series, followed by a list of books in that series. I have also set up the page in three snaking columns, but I suspect my problem and answer is the same, whether I am referring to columns or to pages.

I have set it up in the design view, using the grouping, sort, and total box at the bottom. I keep the author and the first series name together. I keep the series name and the list of books from that series together on one page. This works great 95% of the time, and looks exactly as I want it to, always starting a new series at the top of a column if it will not fit in the previous one. My problem is the 5% of the time, where there are so many books in the series, that it leaves a lot of white space in the bottom of a column. In those cases, I would not mind if the list is broken up and snaked around to the next column. When the list of books is more than a page long, it takes the series header and starts on a brand new column, leaving the authors name all by itself in the previous column with a whole column of white space underneath. It looks very unprofessional. I tried changing the setting to only keep the first record instead of the whole list, but while it fixed my problem for that 5% of the time, it messed up the original 95%, which was perfect. With this method, quite often, I will have a series name, followed by only one or two books before it snakes to the top of the next column, and it looks terrible and unprofessional. I would much prefer in those cases that I have a few lines of white space at the bottom and start the series at the top of the next column, which my first grouping method accomplished.

I figure that if I can make my keep-together rule conditional based on the position on the page, that it would solve my problem. If the series starts in the top half of a page, then ignore the rule and keep listing, if it is in the bottom of a page, start at the top of a new column. I just have no idea how to do this. The grouping box at the bottom only gives me the three options: no keep-together, keep whole group together, or keep header and first record together.

I am still a relative novice at access, and have no idea how to do this. Any help that can be provided would be appreciated.
 

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