Access Report Prints Form Instead — Seeking Insights from the Community

Question

Access Report Prints Form Instead — Seeking Insights from the Community

Phillip Bridgeman 0

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone here can shed light on a frustrating issue we've been facing with Microsoft Access. We have a database where users click a button on a form (labelled “Delivery Sheet”) to open a report in Print Preview mode. The report displays correctly in a new tab, but when users click the Print button in the ribbon, it prints the form instead of the report, even though the report is visibly in front.

Here's what we've tried so far:

The embedded macro behind the button uses OpenReport (Print Preview) followed by SelectObject to set the focus on the report

We've tested adding Maximize as a macro action between OpenReport and SelectObject

The issue persists even after updating the Brother printer driver, repairing Office/Access, and verifying that other Office apps print fine.
Pressing Ctrl + P from the report preview prints the correct report, every time

Selecting the specific printer manually also works

Switching to “Use Default Printer” in Page Setup works inconsistently

From what we can tell, it seems like Access still considers the form to be the active object when using the ribbon Print button, even if the report is in preview mode.

Has anyone run into this issue before?

Are there more reliable ways to ensure report focus when using macros?

Would switching to overlapping windows mode solve the issue reliably?

Is there a VBA-free workaround that works 100% of the time?

Should we train users to always use Ctrl + P or bypass preview with direct printing?

Any insights, workarounds, or lessons learned would be appreciated. I appreciate any help you can provide.

2 answers

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Answer 1

DBG 11,381 Volunteer Moderator

Do you really need to "preview" the report before printing it? What happens if you change your macro to print the report straight to the printer without previewing it? That would eliminate the need for the Select Object macro action. Just a thought...

Answer 2

Do you have a form with a timer running in the background?

If yes, then often what will occur is for a "very" short time, when the form with the timer runs, then that becomes the selected form, and thus any print operations will print the form, and not the report you are viewing. However, while the above is just a suggestion to check, it does not appear to be your current case.

Next up:

Is the report set as modal? You could try removing that, and since a new tab opens, then that suggests that you not set the report as popup. However, if you did set report as "popup" (you find this setting in the other tab of the property sheet), then I suspect that this would fix your issue. Also, is the form that has the button to launch the form, is this a popup form, or simply a form opened that appears as a new tab?

If acceptable, I would try the report as popup, and see if that works for you, and is a ok "UI" change for your users....

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Access Report Prints Form Instead — Seeking Insights from the Community

2 answers

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