Wednesday, November 09, 2022
Tip of the Day: Report/Label Designer Productivity Tips
Product.......: R:BASE X.5 and R:BASE X.5 Enterprise (Version 10.5)
Build.........: 10.5.5.11013 or higher
Sections......: Reports/Labels
Below are a valuable tips to help get the most productivity out of the
R:BASE Report/Label Designer. The list starts with basic information,
but the items become more involved further down.
If you wish, reply with "I did not know that..." for any interesting
item! Personally, I did not know that the "Existing" tab of the Object
List toolbar displays the "layer order" of the controls within each band!
Report/Label Designer Tips:
. When the Report Designer is launched the main menu bar includes
options specific to the designer: File, Edit, View, Report, and Variables.
. Two tabs are located on the top left of the Report Designer;
"Design" and "Preview", where users can toggle between the report's
preview and design, before printing.
. The properties for all report objects may be adjusted by using the
right click context menu.
. To resize a report band, use the mouse by positioning the cursor
over the gray rectangular area (band) below the white space, press and
hold the left mouse button, and drag.
. You can cut, copy and paste one or more report controls at a time,
either in the same report or between different reports.
. You can paste external content (text, rich text, images) directly
into the Report Designer from the Windows clipboard.
. Use the "Format" toolbar options (Font Name, Font Size, Font Style,
and Justification) to set the font, size, style, colors, and
justification of objects.
. Use the "Align or Space" toolbar options to position controls
relative to one another and relative to the band in which they appear.
. Use the "Size" toolbar options to adjust the width and height of
controls.
. Use the "Nudge" toolbar options to move the controls by one pixel.
. When added new text-based label objects, select a control to mimic
before selecting the desired control. When placed, the new object will
take on the style, font, and size of the selected object, which saves
time when adding multiple objects.
. Use the [Shift+Right Arrow], [Shift+Left Arrow],[Shift+Up Arrow] or
[Shift+Down Arrow] key combinations to accurately increase width,
decrease width, increase height or decrease height of any individual
control or group of selected controls.
. Use the [Ctrl+Right Arrow], [Ctrl+Left Arrow],[Ctrl+Up Arrow] or
[Ctrl+Down Arrow] key combinations to accurately move any individual
control or group of selected controls.
. Set up the Page Size and Margins before placing any controls on
report bands. Select "File: Page Setup..." from the menu bar.
. The width of the page (white space) displayed in the Report Designer
is the actual width, after taking the page margins into consideration.
. To set the ruler units, use the "Report: Units" menu bar option or
right click on the ruler and select the appropriate unit from the
available context menu options. To hide the a ruler, right click on the
ruler and select 'Hide' from the speed menu options. The ruler may be
displayed again by selecting "View: Rulers" from the menu bar.
. The status bar, across the bottom on the designer window, provides
information about the select object such as the name, type, coordinates,
and/or table, column and variable details.
. You can position toolbars on any edge of the window and in any
order. Whether the toolbars are docked or floating, you will see the
hint for any toolbar button when the cursor is hovered over the button.
The designer will remember the last docked/floating setting when closing
the designer. From the menu bar, select the "View: Toolbars" option to
hide or show any toolbar.
. Use the Magnifying Glass utility to display a zoomed area of the
R:BASE environment and monitor, which is useful when editing objects
very close to each other. The Magnifying Glass can be launched by
selecting the "Utilities: Magnifying Glass" menu bar option or using the
[Ctrl+Alt+M] key combination.
. The Preview tab displays only the first 100 records in the
table/view. The record count can be decreased or increased in the
Default Report/Label Settings. To view the Default Report/Label
Settings, choose "Settings: Report/Label Designer: Default Settings"
from the menu bar. A custom WHERE clause may be entered and applied to
the preview results with the "Report: Preview WHERE Clause" menu option.
The specified WHERE clause replaces the default (100 records) display
limit for the preview results. The Preview WHERE Clause can be launched
with the [Ctrl+Shift+P] key combination.
. To assign object display formats, right click on a field to use the
context menu to view the "Display Format" dialog. R:BASE will determine
the data type assigned to the object and display several formats
appropriate for that data type. For example, a field object based upon
the DATE data type will provide a list of commonly used date formats.
After one of the pre-defined formats is selected, that format may also
be customized.
. You should pre-define all global variables used in a report. You may
access the R> Prompt window to define global variables or use the
[Global] button while defining your Report Expressions. Variable may
also be pre-defined within a report's "On Before Design" action. Select
"Report: Actions: On Before Design" from the menu bar to defined
variables as such.
. All report bands include right click context menu options to run a
Custom EEP before or after the data within the band is generated.
. The Code tab allows users to easily review and modify the command
syntax in Report Actions and for Custom EEPs in report bands. The EEP
contents of the Code tab is intentionally read only, and supports the
ability to double click the mouse or press the [Enter] key to launch the
R:BASE Editor for code modifications.
. The History tab displays created report backups, every time changes
are made to the report, and then saved. A revision number and date/time
are used to track changes over time. An option is available within the
"Settings: Report/Label Designer: Default Settings" to disable the
History feature, if desired.
. Use the EEP Map utility to displays all defined EEPs for a report in
a single layout, arranging EEPs by location. Any Custom EEP may be
launched in the R:BASE Editor by double clicking on the listed item, or
by selecting the "Edit..." button. The EEP Map can be launched by
selecting "Report: Document Custom EEPs: EEP Map" from the menu bar or
using the [Shift+Ctrl+M] key combination.
. Use the DB Calc object when you need to calculate a SUM, COUNT, MIN,
MAX or AVG aggregate function value for a table field, which can be
placed in any report band for dynamic results.
. The COUNT option of DB Calc can be used in the Detail Band to
display the line number for each record in the report.
. To prevent unauthorized viewing of a report, assign a "Print
Password". To do so, choose "Report: Passwords: Set Print Password" from
the menu bar. A design password may also be specified.
. Set a report band height property to "Dynamic" when you want the
band to use page space on an "as needed" basis, which shrinks or
stretches the band to accommodate the table data displayed. When the
report band height is set to "Static", the band uses the exact amount of
space specified (unless the band is not set as Visible, in which case it
uses zero page space).
. Set the "Stretch" property of a Memo object when you want the height
of the memo field to automatically stretch, to allow the entire contents
of the memo to be printed. If you are framing the memo within a shape,
set the shape's "Stretch With Parent" property to "True" (checked) and
the height of the shape object will stretch to accommodate the height of
the memo field. And, use the "Shift With Parent" property of the other
report controls to determine whether the position of the report controls
should move as the memo stretches.
. You can use the "Visible" property of each object, or the entire
band, to control what is displayed on a report. To hide all the objects
in a band, set the Visible property of the band to False (unchecked). To
hide individual objects, set the Visible property of individual object
to False (unchecked).
. Use True Type fonts (indicated by "T" icon in the Format toolbar)
when possible. These render well to both the screen as well as printer
output. If you are using a dot-matrix printer, the printer driver may
supply printer fonts (indicated by a printer icon) that you can use to
speed up the printing of the report.
. The "Format" toolbar contains the "Bring to Front" and "Send to
Back" buttons which are used when layering report objects on top of one
another. The controls on the top layer print last, and the controls on
the bottom layer print first. Use the "Existing" tab of the Object List
toolbar to see the layer order of the controls within each band.
. Use the Scrapbook utility as a repository for commonly used objects.
The "Add to Scrapbook..." menu option is available when any object is
right clicked. With the Scrapbook filled with content, those objects may
be added to a report by launching the Scrapbook and double clicking on
the desired item. The Scrapbook can be launched by selecting "View: Open
Scrapbook" from the menu bar or using the [Ctrl+Alt+B] key combination.
. The Favorites Toolbar allows users to customize their favorite
objects onto a single toolbar which stores their commonly used items.
Select "View: Favorites" from the menu bar to open the "Favorite
Controls" dialog, where desired objects may be gathered from Standard,
Database, Variables, Advanced, and PDF Report Controls. The controls
can be arranged in a desired order as well. After populating a list of
favorites, the customized toolbar is displayed at the top of the Object
List toolbar.
. Save your work frequently to avoid losing changes, should your
computer unexpectedly lose power, or fail to respond.
. Save the report and close the designer window prior to closing or
exiting R:BASE, or disconnecting from the database.
Very Best R:egards,
Razzak.
R:BASE Technologies, Inc.
https://www.rbase.com
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