The report template occupies the main part of the Report Builder. It consists of the report objects, which have their own properties to control their displaying behavior.
Adding an object
To add an object, just select the one from Object Palette and click template in the place, where you would like to place it. If you don't see the Object Palette, choose Options | Toolbars | Object Palette menu.
Selecting object(s)
To select an object, just click it in template or select it in Report Tree window. To select multiple objects, click each object holding Shift down or use rubber-band technique holding Ctrl down, as it is shown on the image below. To edit properties of selected object(s), use Object Inspector window or tool bar buttons. When you select many objects, you may edit their common properties as long as move, copy, cut, or remove them.
Deleting object(s)
To delete an object, you should select it and click Delete Object button or press Delete. Note, that when you select many objects, you may remove or cut only those objects, which selected within one container.
Editing objects' properties
You can edit the properties of the selected object(s) in Object Inspector window. Also, some properties can be edited directly in template area by using mouse, for example:
- To move selected object(s), click selected area and drag it to the new place. When you use only mouse, objects can be moved by multiple of grid cell size value (8 pixels by default); if you need to move them by arbitrary number of pixels, press and hold F12 down during the dragging. You also can use Object Inspector window or combinations of Shift or Ctrl and arrow keys.
- To resize selected object, click one of the resizing markers and drag the object edge. When you use only mouse, the object can be resized by multiple of grid cell size value (8 pixels by default); if you need to resize it by arbitrary number of pixels, press and hold F12 down during the dragging. To resize more than one object at once, use Object Inspector window or combinations of Shift or Ctrl and arrow keys.
- To move an entire column (with all its objects) to new position, select any object in the column and, pressing Alt, click the object by the left mouse button and drag it to the new position (see notes below).
- To resize an entire column (with all its objects), select any object in the column, move cursor to left or right resizing marker and, pressing Alt, click left mouse button and drag the column edge to the new position (see notes below).
There are several functions for aligning of selected objects by edge, height, or width of one of them. These functions are located under context menu of the objects or in Objects Alignment toolbar.
Last actions in the Report Builder can be undone using the corresponding button or menu item from Edit menu. But there are some exceptions, for example, you cannot undo last action after saving report template, after clearing the template, after rebuilding the template by other report scheme and in some other cases.
Report template can be saved to file (usually with .dtt extension). Such files is called dynamic reports, because such reports, unlike static reports, show their data dynamically from the open database.
You can save the report template to binary or text form (using the corresponding property of the Report object). Template file in text form can be edited directly, but it is not recommended to do so. Use text form of template files when moving the templates between different Database Tour Pro or Reportizer versions.
There are some demo files in the application: several demo databases in dBase (.dbf) and Access formats and a set of reports, which use those databases (all are located in Examples folder). They can help you to learn more about report features.