Designing sections of the report

There are several ways in which you can set up the design of your report.

Setting up the design

From the File menu, select Options to open the Options dialog. From this dialog, you can:

  • Change the layout grid size of the Report Layout tab
  • Set the default font to be used for labels
  • Set the default font to be used for any field type other than labels

Change the layout grid size

From the General tab you can change the layout grid size of the Report Layout tab, and you can choose to display the grid in centimeters or inches.

The measurement unit selected here determines the units used for all size and location properties throughout the report.

Select the check boxes to enable the Show Grid and Snap to Grid fields.

Note: Snap to Grid can be enabled even when the layout grid is not shown.

Change the default font for labels

From the Label Font tab, you can set the default font to be used for labels.

Set the default font for field types other than labels

From the Other Font tab, you can set the default font to be used for any field type other than labels.

Inserting sections

To insert sections on the report, select the required option from the Insert menu. You can insert page headers, report headers, detail sections, report footers, and page footers.

You can then drag fields or labels from the Data Fields Browser or Shared Label Browser onto the sections in the Report Design window as required.

The Report Header section comprises the first page of a report. This is usually used to display information such as the report parameters, creation date and possibly report totals. After adding the Report Header section, add Page Header and Page Footer sections. Open the Page Layout tab to view the main body of the report and add fields to the Detail section and Group sections for adding, for example, sub-totals to complete the design.

Inserting subsections

To insert subsections on the report, select Subsection from the Insert menu. Choose whether you want to insert the subsection above or below the currently highlighted section of the report.

The subsection inherits the name of the section it is associated with. For example, a subsection inserted above or below a Detail section is named Detail_1.

You can then drag fields or labels from the Data Fields Browser or Shared Label Browser onto the subsections in the Report Design window as required.

Section properties

To display the section properties, click on the relevant section in the Report Layout window.

Right-click and select Properties. The Section Properties dialog is displayed which contains the following:

  • General
    • Name: You can change the name of the section.
    • Group By: See Grouping Sections.
    • Page Attributes: The following options are also available:
      • Page Break Before
      • Page Break After
      • Repeat on New Page.
Note: The page header and footer sections have two further properties; Print On First Page and Print On Last Page, accessible from the Properties tab.

Visibility

  • Initial Visibility: You can select whether the item is initially visible, hidden, or if visibility is dependent on an expression. To define an expression, click the query button and build the required expression, or enter the text as appropriate.
  • Visibility can be toggled by another item: If you require the item to be made visible when another item is clicked, check this check box, and complete the Report item field below.
  • Report item: Enter the report item to toggle visibility. Generally a report item on a header row is selected to toggle visibility of detail rows. At run time, in HTML mode, the selected report item is displayed with an expand/contract button to the left of it. When clicked, the initially hidden items or rows are made visible.

Navigation

Bookmark ID: You can enter a Bookmark ID to bookmark areas of the report.