Apart from report bands, which divide the report into logical sections, a report consists of report elements placed on the report bands. These elements define what exactly is printed on each band.

The two most important report elements are "Labels" and "Datafields". Labels are used for printing text - for example a title - that has no connection to a database. Datafields are placeholders for fields from a dataset. Whenever a data field is to be printed, the report engine gets the field content from the dataset and puts this text where you placed the datafield.

Usually labels are add-ons for datafields, to make the report look better and more understandable by not only listing data, but also showing which kind of data is printed too.

The following picture shows the report definition for the above country listing:

The following types of report elements are available when designing a report:

• Datafields to display text from a dataset
• Labels to display fixed text
• Systemfields (date, time, page number, ...)
• Shapes (circle, rectangle, line)
• Image (Windows bitmap file)
• Image from a data field
• Expression (calculated field, mathematical calculations, ...)
• Memo (text with multiple lines)
• RTF (Richtextformat = formatted text, only available with 32-bit applications)
• RTF from a data field (only available with 32-bit applications)
• Chart (charts, graphs, ...)

Each report element has specific properties (font, color, ...), which you can edit. This is further described in the chapters about the different elements.