Below are valuable tips to help get the most productivity out of the R:BASE Report Designer:
•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.
•After objects are placed, and then is selected, small blue circles appear around the four corners and four sides; called handlebars. When more than one object is selected, red square handlebars are displayed. The handlebars are extremely useful for editing the properties of more than one object or moving more than one object. Hovering your cursor over the handlebars for an individual object changes the pointer to a double arrow. Holding down the left mouse button with the double arrow lets you stretch or shrink the object.
•Multiple objects can be selected with the mouse cursor by lassoing objects. The lasso appears as a dotted line while you drag the mouse cursor. It works by starting in one corner of the work space, holding down the left mouse button, and dragging the cursor to the opposite corner. The lasso only needs to be touching the object in order to select it for editing.
•You can cut, copy and paste one or more report controls at a time, either in the same report or between different reports.
•Maximize the Report Designer window and use the right click context menus as much as possible.
•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.
•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 any bands. Select File: Page Setup... from the menu bar.
oLeave the Printer as 'Default' unless required for special circumstances where a hard-coded printer is assigned to only print on that particular printer
oVerify the Paper Size, Width, Height, and Orientation
oLeave the Paper Tray as 'Default' unless required for special circumstances where a hard-coded paper tray is assigned to only use assigned paper tray
oLeave Layout settings as default, unless designing columnar reports
oAdjust the Top, Bottom, Left and Right margin as required
•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 rulers, right click on a 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 selected 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) 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.
•Use the "Align or Space" toolbar options to position controls relative to one another and relative to the band in which they appear.
oAlign Left aligns a group of controls with the "left-most" control's position.
oAlign Middle centers a group of controls based on the "horizontal center" of the control group.
oAlign Right aligns a group of controls with the "right-most" control's position.
oAlign Top aligns a group of controls with the "top-most" control's position.
oAlign Center aligns a group of controls based on the "vertical center" of the control group.
oAlign Bottom aligns a group of controls based with the "bottom-most" control's position.
oSpace Horizontally evenly spaces a set of controls based on the "left-most" control's position and the "right-most" control's position.
oSpace Vertically evenly spaces a set of controls based on the "top-most" control's position and the "bottom-most" control's position.
oCenter Horizontally in Band centers a control "horizontally" within a parent control.
oCenter Vertically in Band centers a control "vertically" within a parent control.
oStack Left arranges a set of controls in a pile to the "left-most" control, or to the control that was selected first.
oStack Right arranges a set of controls in a pile to the "right-most" control, or to the control that was selected first.
oStack Up arranges a set of controls in a pile to the "top-most" control, or to the control that was selected first.
oStack Down arranges a set of controls in a pile to the "bottom-most" control, or to the control that was selected first.
•Use the "Size" toolbar options to adjust the width and height of controls.
oShrink Width to Smallest determines the "minimum width" of all the selected controls, and then sets the "width" of the controls to that value.
oGrow Width to Largest determines the "maximum width" of all selected controls, and then sets the "width" of the controls to that value.
oShrink Height to Smallest determines the "minimum height" of all the selected controls, and then sets the "height" of the controls to that value.
oGrow Height to Largest determines the "maximum height" of all selected controls, and then sets the "height" of the controls to that value.
oGrow to Parent Width determines the width of the parent control, and then sets the "width" of the control(s) to that value.
oGrow to Width increases the width of all the selected controls to a specified pixel value.
oGrow to Parent Height determines the height of the parent control, and then sets the "height" of the control(s) to that value.
oGrow to Height increases the height of all the selected controls to a specified pixel value.
•Use the "Nudge" toolbar options to move the controls pixel by pixel.
oNudge Up moves all selected components one pixel "up".
oNudge Down moves all selected components one pixel "down".
oNudge Left moves all selected components one pixel "left".
oNudge Right moves all selected components one pixel "right".
•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.
