Design Mode On/Off does not work.

[DewRagDave]

Design Mode on/off button does not work when creating a report.
It does work when creating a Form though!

I created a new database file, then created a query, then created a report... all well and good.
I then saved and reopened the report in edit mode.

The Design Mode on/off button does nothing more than ghost out some options in the task bar.
The report stays in edit mode all the time.

If I click on the Reload button, the data will fill into the report from the query file but still be in edit mode.
If I click on the Design Mode on/off button again and then the reload button again, everything below the report header goes blank and I cannot get it back. If I close the report without saving and re-open the report still looks good.

Is there a fix or work around for this? I'm using 4.1.8 on Win 7 machine.

[Villeroy]

You can delete the report and let the wizard build a new one. Alternatively, you can install the report builder extension and build a new one with this tool. It comes with extensive editing facilities. The LibreOffice suite integrated the report builder.
Modifying the old style reports is difficult: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=81453#p502141

[DewRagDave]

So what you are saying is that one of the most important buttons for designing reports...does not work and probably will not be fixed in the near future? I should scrap Open Office and switch to LibreOffice which has the same report builder built into it? Does it have the same bug? I just want to hop back and forth between Edit and Preview. It seems like that option should be working. I'm not trying to be a smart ass, I'm just frustrated with the difficulty of simplistics! I'm not saying that I'm an absolute expert at MS Access but I've designed a few accounting systems for companies in my area and in contrast can barely create an address list in Open Office. I'm retired now and thought it would be fun to noodle around with a new program or two. I'm going to download LibreOffice for larks but would still like to get a solution to my original problem.

[RoryOF]

Volunteer developers usually fix things when they impinge on their work. Don't expect your MS Access skills to transfer without much effort to Open- or Libre-Office.

[Villeroy]

You can barely create an address list? Use plain text, dBase, a spreadsheet or any database application of your choice and connect a Base document to it. The address books of some mail clients are also connectable. The reports you are using are 20 years old. They never worked well which is why 12 years ago, the Sun Report Builder was introduced as an extension. Sun does not exist as a company anymore. Now it is the Oracle Report builder even though OpenOffice is no longer owned by Oracle.
Since 2011 LibreOffice is the actively developed successor to OpenOffice. It integrated the report builder as the one and only report engine. The entire Base component with all its drivers weighs no more than 40 Megabytes. It is a tiny addition to this office suite. You must not compare it to MS Access.

[DewRagDave]

RoryOF - Apparently you don't have a solution either? So...you are saying that no one creates Data Base Reports? Because without that particular button the whole process of creating and testing reports is as you say... impinged. The program opens up a report in preview mode and it opens up the same report in edit mode, it just won't flip back and forth, which I (for some crazy reason) would think that it should do right out of the box! I mean they took the time to put that exact button in three different task bars on the edit screen! Also, I downloaded Libre and it crashes with "requires a 64 bit Java runtime environment (JRE)" Oh, wait...I'm already running a 64 bit version of Java. A lot of the functionality between Access and OO is similar enough to grasp in a short time period, but it seams like the data base reporting function was an afterthought.

[DewRagDave]

Villeroy, Thank you for the update and quick response. Now I understand why I was having difficulties. Even in the MS world, Access isn't that widely distributed. Most users will never buy the full suite. Oh and I was using "The barely create an address list" example as a metaphor for my frustration with the toggle button. I've used the OO spreadsheet and writer in combo to do mail merge etc...The spreadsheet actually has some functions that were never even a thought in Excel. I was trying to create a duplicate address data base like the one that I created in Access a few years ago. I've been playing around with Linux too, downloading and fiddling with various builds as I was thinking of having a PC that was totally open source. You may have seen my other post about the Java issue I'm having with Libre. How do you like Ubuntu, I'm looking at Fedora and MX also. A little of my background info - back in 1992 I was a Security/Systems Administrator on a IBM RISC System/6000 and was writing UNIX/AIX security scripts to standardize user profile creation. I'm retired now but still like to tweek code now and again.