Changing layout properties

These properties are available:

Columns

Specify the width of the layout as a number of characters. This may influence the dynamic sizing behavior of the PDF converter for some standard reports. To observe this behavior, select Show grid during preview on the settings menu.

This property is not available if the report uses exact positioning.

Lines / Height

If the report does not use exact positioning, the name of the property is Lines. Specify the height, in lines, of the layout. This is the number of lines consumed on the page by the layout, regardless of its content or the Extra lines property.

If the report uses exact positioning, the name of the property is Height. It has the same function as Lines, but is specified as a length.

Extra lines / Extra Required Space

If the report does not use exact positioning, the name of the property is Extra lines. Before printing a layout, the reporting engine determines the free space at the current page. If the layout does not fit on the same page, the layout is printed on a new page. If the value of this option is 0, only the height of the layout itself is taken into account. With this option you can increase the number of extra free lines for the layout. You can use this property to ensure at least one detail line is printed together with the group header.

If the report uses exact positioning, the name of the property is Extra Required Space. It has the same function as Extra lines, but is specified as a length.

The Extra lines / Extra Required Space property is not available on Header and Footer layouts.

In the Development Tools and LN Studio this property is referred to as Extra Need.

Start on new page

If this check box is selected, the layout is printed on a new page. When a new page is started, also Header, Footer, and Before Field layouts are printed. If the current line is at the top of the page, this option has no effect.

If this property is set on a Before Field layout with a sequence number higher than another Before Field layout, only the layout with higher sequence is printed on the new page. The other layout is printed on the previous page and is not repeated on the new page. In this case, headers are printed on the new page.

This property is not available on Header and Footer layouts.

Dataset

You can use this property to link the report layout to a dataset, which must be available in the corresponding report extension. See Using Datasets..

Dataset Part

This property specifies at which time this dataset layout should be printed.

This property is only available if a dataset is selected.

See Using Datasets.

Datasets to Print

Specifies the link to a dataset to be printed whenever this layout is printed.

See Using Datasets.

Background Image

Specify the image to be displayed as background when this layout is printed.

Preserve Ratio

If this check box is selected, the background image is resized to fit the layout. The original aspect ratio of the image is maintained.

If this check box is cleared, the image is stretched to fill the entire layout.

Conditional Formatting

The indicator shows if a conditional format is present for this report object. Click the link to got to the Conditional Formatting page.

See Applying conditional formatting.

Standard print condition

This property is read-only. It shows the condition that must be true for the layout to be printed. The expression is 3GL code.

Personalized print condition

Optionally, specify a condition to be used in addition to the standard condition.

You can use this property for these purposes:

• Suppress the layout in some situations. The layout is printed only if both the standard condition and the personalized condition are true.
• Based on the value of report input fields, print a layout with a different style or a different selection of fields.
• Completely suppress a layout. To achieve this, specify 0 or false in this property.

Sheet Break

This property is relevant if you export the report to an Excel workbook and is only applicable for Before Field layouts.

If this check box is selected, an Excel workbook sheet break occurs each time the Before Field Layout is printed.

Sheet Name Expression

This property is relevant if you export the report to an Excel workbook and is only applicable if the Sheet Break check box is selected.

Specify a name for the Excel workbook sheet, which can be any report input field, a plain text, or a combination of both using ampersands (&).

If no sheet name expression is specified, the sheet name of the report is used. See Changing report properties.

Rows

This property is relevant if you export the report to an Excel workbook.

Specify the number of Excel rows that is required for the layout.

For ‘non-exact positioned’ reports, the default value for this property is automatically set to the number of lines in the layout.