This chapter shows a simple example on how to use the report designer. An existing report with datasets and report bands already set up will be modified. Look at the following example:

This report layout will result in the following printout:

Change the Height of the Data Lines

Let's say the data lines are too close and you want them to be further apart. Each line gets its layout from the report's detail band. For each data record the detail band is printed once, so if you change the height of the detail band, the space for each data record will be increased. To do this, in the report designer first select the detail band by clicking it with the left mouse button. Small black boxes will appear at the corners of the band, which are used to resize report elements. Left-click the middle box at the bottom of the band, hold down the mouse button and move the mouse cursor down. This way the detail band will be resized, and after releasing the mouse button the new band height is set.

You may now press the "Preview" button or select "Report|Preview" to check the new report. You will see that now there is more empty space between each line of data.

Move Report Elements

Maybe you don't like the positioning of some of the report elements, and for example you want the first data field to be slightly more to the right. You can change this by just clicking the data field with the left mouse button (and holding the button down) and dragging it to its new position on the band. Please note that you can not move elements to another band, and you can not move report bands because their position is determined automatically by their band type (e.g. page header at the top of the page).

Change Fonts

If you want to change the font of a report element, first select it (you may also select multiple elements at once) and then use the toolbar to change the font settings:

You can select a font name, font size and style (bold, underline, italic). The available fonts depend on the installed fonts on your computer.

Add and Change Label

Press the "label" button to insert static text into your report. After pressing the button click on the report where you want to add new text. The label property dialog will be shown, where you can type in your text and set some other options. After hitting the OK button the text will be inserted into the report and will later be printed out at this position.

If you want to change the text (or any other property, e.g. text alignment) of an existing label, select the report element with your left mouse button and reopen the property dialog, either with a double click or by selecting "Edit" from the popup menu (accessible with the right mouse button).