The Report Designer

When you click on any of the many Customize buttons in various parts of UniRes, the report designer will be opened with the form used to print your report.

Some of the basic tasks are ...

Allocating or setting a printer to a print form.

•Setting Printer and Page parameters

•Repositioning Text Boxes

•Adding a Text Box

•Deleting unwanted fields and information from a report form

•Adding Pictures or Logo's to a form

•Formatting Text and Paragraphs

Open the Report Designer

When viewing a Report Options screen or in the Reprint Receipt screen (in Charges), click on the Customize button.

or in a report options window ...

Important

Many Reports actually have two forms which are laid out much the same way for each report. The one report form is designed to display nicely on your screen when you preview the report or print the report to a bubble-jet or laser printer and the other is designed for Dot matrix printers or for use with a Generic Printer driver.

 

The Report Designer Window

When the Report Designer Window appears, the report form layout is shown, ready to be edited.

Allocating or setting a Printer to a form

Each printer form can store a printer definition with the form so that when the form is printed, it will go to the chosen printer. All the forms supplied with UniRes will print to your Default windows printer, so if you have a special receipt printer or more than one printer, you can tell the form to print to the alternate printer.

To set he printer properties ...

From the Report Designers File Menu select ... Report Page Setup

 

Tip: If the Report Designer window is not showing full screen, click on the Maximize Button at the top right of your screen...

Report Page Setup

      Then select Print Setup... (XP Operating System only) . Use the Reporting - Manager program to allocate printers to specific reports.

From this window you can select any of your installed printers, set Paper Size, Source and Orientation.

Click on Ok when finished.

You can now continue editing the report form or you can Close the Report Designer and Save the changes..

 

To Close the Report Designer

Click on the X (Close Box for the report designer window.)

 

Repositioning Text Boxes

Text Boxes are area in the report where Plain Text is shown. The Text Boxes do not have a boarder like the Field Boxes which are used to display values. DO NOT ALTER THE CONTENTS OF A FIELD BOX. Only alter the contents of a Text Box if required.

To reposition a Text Box, click on it with your mouse to select it. Note the positioning handles (the small black markers) around the box.

When a box is selected, you can use your keyboard up/down/left and right arrow keys to reposition the box or you can click-hold and drag the box to a new spot. Be sure not to click on a sizing handle as this will change the size of the box.

Tip: No permanent changes to the form are made until you close the Report Designer and choose to save the changes, so you can experiment as much as you like and then choose not to save when leaving the designer.

 

Adding or Changing Text Boxes

You can add text anywhere on the form or change (Edit) the text in a box.

 

Adding Text

First we need to open a Report Designer ToolBar ....

      From the Menu at the top of the Report Designer select View - Report Controls Toolbar

You can also open the Layout Toolbar if you wish. The Layout Toolbar is used to align boxes by selecting multiple boxes (not discussed in the basic operation).

The Toolbar is displayed on your screen. You can drag the toolbar to the top of the screen and Dock it.

      Click on the A (for Alpha) then click on your form at the position where you want the text to appear.

Start Typing your text. Click anywhere outside the text area to finish up.

 

Editing Text Boxes

This is much the same as adding text. Just click on the Alpha box on the toolbar and then click on the text box. The text box goes into edit mode. Insert or remove text as required.

 

Deleting Text Boxes

Click on the text box and press the Delete key on your keyboard. If you make a mistake, use the menu bar - Edit - Undo facility.

Adding Pictures or Logos to a Form

You can add pictures or logos to your form using the Report Controls Toolbar. Click on the OLE icon on the toolbar and then click at the position on the form to insert the picture.

The following window called Report Picture is displayed. You can now select the picture file from any folder on your hard disk by clicking on the Browse button (1.)  next to the file name entry area....

 

Select Scale Picture, fill the frame (2.) to get the best results.

Click on Ok when finished. To Edit the picture box on your form, just double-click on it to bring forward the Report Picture window again.

 

Resizing a Picture

After the picture is added to your form, click on it and you will see small "handles" around the picture place holder. Click and drag a handle to resize the picture in the direction you want.

 

Adjusting the Picture Position

Click and hold down the left mouse button and drag the picture to the required position or just click on it and use the keyboard arrow keys to adjust the ppicture position in small steps.

 

Fromatting Text and Paragraphs

To format text, change fonts etc, you use the same principles as any wordprocessor. First highlight the text, box, etc. and click on the Menu Bar - Format. Choose any of the available formatting commands.

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