This database contains an interface for generating a variety of reports.  Reports are divided into two categories, “Soil Reports” and “System Reports”.  Soil reports present information about a selected soil survey area.  System reports describe the functionality and structure of this template database.  At this time, no descriptions of the individual soil reports are available.  Descriptions of some of the system reports can be found in the section titled “SSURGO Metadata Reports”.

In order to generate soil reports, select the tab labeled “Forms” and then open the form named “Soil Reports”.  In order to generate system reports, select the tab labeled “Forms” and then open the form named “System Reports”.  Note that the Soil Reports form has a button for opening the System Reports form, and vice versa.  Both forms may be open at the same time.

In order to generate most soil reports, you must first select one or more map units to be included in the report.  If your database contains data for more than one soil survey area, you may first have to select the appropriate soil survey area before selecting map units.  The current soil report interface restricts you to selecting one or more map units for a single soil survey area at a time.  The only soil reports that don’t require you to fist select one or more map units are the Survey Area Metadata and Survey Area Interpretation Descriptions reports.

After you have selected the map units you wish to include in the report, select the soil report you wish to generate.  If the report you selected does not require any parameters, the button on the lower left of the form will have the caption “Generate Report”.  Clicking “Generate Report” will display the currently selected report in the “preview window”.  If the report you selected requires parameters, the button on the lower left of the form will have the caption “Select Parameters”.  Clicking “Select Parameters” will bring up another form, from which you can make your parameter selections.  After making your parameter selection, click the button on the parameter form that is labeled “Generate Report”.

Once a report has come up in the preview window, you can browse through the report in the preview window, or actually print the report from the preview window.  When you are finished browsing or printing the report, you can close the preview window by either clicking the “X” at the top right of the window or by clicking the menu item at the top of the screen labeled “Close”.

The System Reports form operates the same as the Soil Reports form except you do not select map units before generating a system report.

All report interface forms may be closed by clicking the button labeled “Exit”.

Generating a soil report (as opposed to a system report) by selecting the tab labeled “Reports” and then opening a specific report should be avoided.  While this won’t break anything per se, the report that is displayed, if any, will be based on map unit selections that were made at some point in the past.  If the report requires additional parameters, the report will be based on parameter selections that were also made at some point in the past.