The Basics of the InfoNaut Report Writer Formatting Tools
The InfoNaut Report Writer has a wide range of formatting features. You can resize each section, adjust the size and color of fonts and you can use borders or lines to emphasize or separate different types of information. Labels can also be added to any of the fields that are used in the associated query or table. Fields can be aligned by left or right edge, top, middle, or bottom. You can also alter fields to an identical size, with the properties locked to read only status.
Report Writer Window
The Designer tab of the InfoNaut Report Writer window has the following elements:
Design Surface
Designer Tabs
Report Explorer
Report Menu
Toolbars
Toolbox
Design Surface
The Design Surface contains the following base components:
PageHeader section - This section is used to print column headers, page numbers, page titles, or any information that needs to be printed once at the top of each page. Bound controls in the PageHeader or PageFooter are not supported. The data in such controls may not be in sync with the data displayed in other sections on the page.
Detail section - This section is the body of the report that prints once for each record in the data source.
DataSource icon - This control is used to connect the report's data source settings to an existing data source
PageFooter section - This section is used to print page totals, page numbers, or any other information that needs to be printed once at the bottom of each page.
Designer/Script/Preview tabs - The Designer and Script tabs can be clicked to toggle between design and script views, while the Preview tab allows for a fully functional design-time preview of how a report will look and behave when printed or converted to one of the available formats.
Designer Tabs
The InfoNaut Report Writer has three tabs - the Designer tab, the Script tab, and the Preview tab.
Designer Tab - The designer tab is selected by default when you create or open an ActiveReport. While in this tab, you can perform all design-time and run-time functions associated with your report, such as creating a layout, binding to data sources, creating event-handling methods, and more.
Script Tab: By selecting the Script tab, you open the script editor. The script editor gives you the ability to easily and quickly add scripting to your report. The script editor contains two comboboxes that allow you to select any section of the ActiveReport and all events associated with that section. When you select a section and an event, the script editor generates a method stub for the event.
Preview Tab: The Preview tab allows you to quickly view what your report looks like at run time without needing to actually run your project. This makes it easy to quickly see the run-time impact of changes you make in the designer or the code-behind. To gain a report preview, toggle from the Designer or Script tab to the Preview tab.
Report Explorer
The Report Explorer serves as the information focal point for your report. From it you can gain a quick overview of the elements that comprise the report, remove individual controls, add parameters and calculated fields, change report settings, bind data fields to textbox controls, and modify properties and report behavior via the Properties grid.
Toolbar
The ActiveReports toolbar is made up of the following components:
Font - Sets the typeface of the selected label, checkbox, or textbox control.
Size - Sets the font size of the selected label, checkbox, or textbox control.
Bold - Sets the bold typeface on or off.
Italic - Sets the italic typeface on or off.
Underline - Sets the underline typeface on or off.
Color - Sets the text color.
Highlight - Sets the text highlighting color.
Align Left - Aligns the text left in the control area.
Align Center - Aligns the text centered in the control area.
Align Right - Aligns the text right in the control area.
Justify - Justifies the text in the control area.
Increase Indent - Increases the indent of the text in the RichText control area.
Decrease Indent - Decreases the indent of the text in the RichText control area.
Toolbox
The ActiveReports toolbox contains the same components as the Insert menu:
Label - Allows you to insert a new static label control.
TextBox - Allows you to insert a textbox, bound to a database field or unbound Toolbox.
CheckBox - Allows you to insert a checkbox, bound to a database field or unbound.
RichTextBox - Allows you to insert an ActiveReports RichTextBox control.
Shape - Allows you to insert a rectangle, circle or square shape.
Picture - Allows you to insert an image loaded from a file.
Line - Allows you to insert a line control.
PageBreak - Allows you to insert a page break within a selection.
Barcode - Allows you to insert an ActiveReports Barcode control.
SubReport - Allows you to insert a Subreport control to link to another report.
OleObject - Allows you to insert an OLE object, bound to a database field or unbound.
CharControl - Allows you to insert a chart in any of a variety of styles.
ReportInfo - Allows you to display report info in a number of format strings, such as {PageNumber} of {PageCount}.