You have created a report in the previous exercise but now you need to make the report more
descriptive so that users can understand the content in the report. Follow these
instructions to refine your report.
-
Click and drag a label (
) from the tools palette in the left panel to the Page Header band.
The Structure tab updates, as shown in the following figure: - Click inside the Label item and type Order Report
-
Double-click inside the
Order Report label to select the text, then select a
larger font size (18 point) and apply boldface, as shown below.
The changes are applied to the text. However, now that the text is bigger you may not see all of it, so use your resizing handles and enlarge the label until you can see all of the text. Alternatively, you can stretch the resizing handles all the way to each edge of the workspace and click the align center icon in the toolbar so that the text is automatically placed in the center of the report page. -
With the Order Report label still selected, click down
arrow of the font color icon in the toolbar. Select a color for your label.
The font color changes. This page header will appear on every page of your report.
-
Now, create column headers by clicking the Details
Header icon under the Structure tab in
the right panel.
The Style and Attributes tabs appear under the Structure tab.
-
Under common in the Attributes
tab, change the Value of the
hide-on-canvas option to
False.
The Details Header band appears in your workspace.
-
In the toolbar, click the Select Objects icon (
) .
Notice that the icon changes to a cross hair as you move into the workspace. -
Move your mouse to the far right of the Details pane.
Now, drag your mouse to the far left, over all your column objects to select
them, as shown in the following example:
-
Click
CTRL
C
to copy your objects and
CTRL
V
to paste them into the Details Header
pane.
Note: Alternatively, you can choose Copy from the right-click menu.
-
Under Format in the Report Designer
menu bar, select Morph > label.
The column objects are changed to labels.
-
Type the correct heading names for each of your columns: Order
No., Order Date, Product
Name, Quan., and Price
Each.
Your headers will align correctly over your columns.
-
Click the Preview icon (
) to display your report.
The following image shows an example of how the report might appear. The report looks good but you may want to make it even easier to read by applying some banding. - In the toolbar, go to Format > Row Banding.
- In the Row Banding dialog box, choose Yellow from the drop-down list next to Visible Color and click OK.
-
Click the Preview icon (
) to display your report.
The following figure shows an example of how the report might appear: -
In the menu bar, go to File > Save to save your report in the
.../report-designer/samples folder. Enter
Orders into the File Name text
box.
Note: See More about row banding, data formatting, and alignment for additional information about refining your report.
Now that your report is easier to read, you can consider adding a chart.