Report Design Techniques
This section describes design and formatting concepts and procedures useful in creating a report document.
When you create a new report document or customize an existing report created in Reporter, you can use any of the following report design techniques:
Add, change, or delete report sections
A report section is the basic unit of layout in a report document. Each section can contain fields, text, and graphics. There are three types of sections, which are described in
Report Section Types (see
Report Section Types).
Add report details, including text, fields, and graphics
Text includes field labels and page and report headers and footers.
A field is a reference in a report document to an individual piece of data. It can be a database field, which displays information from one column in a query result or it can be a computed field, which displays a value computed from the data using a function or formula. For more information, see
How You Can Create Data Fields (see
How You Can Create Data Fields).
Graphics—logos, designs, photos, or other pictures—can be imported into the report. You can also draw lines, rectangles, and ellipses. For more information, see
How You Can Use Shapes & Images Fields (see
How You Can Use Shapes & Images Fields).
Format the page display
You can format margins, text, fields, and data alignment on the report page; place borders around the report; and apply fonts, styles, and color to the report document contents. For more information, see
How You Can Enhance Report Design (see
How You Can Enhance Report Design).