Main menu

File Menu

Some file menu options are also displayed on the Menu toolbar, see below.

Click Add To Navigator to create a shortcut for the report. This will populate the shortcut user list from the Report User List.

Use Print Setup to set printer options.

The last 9 files accessed are listed at the end of the menu.

Edit Menu

You can use shortcut keys. You can also right-click on objects to bring up the edit menu options.

View Menu

You can show or hide the Property Editor, Iterators and Code Editor.

View All Code replaces Report Designer windows with a single multi-panel view of the MaxBasic code.

Preferences opens the Report Designer Preferences.

Menu toolbar

New (Ctrl+N)

Create a new report.

Open (Ctrl+O)

Open an existing report.

Save (Ctrl+S)

Save the report. On save, the previous design version is retained as a backup copy. The backup copy has the original design file name with the extension .BAK. Previous backups of the design file will be renamed to increment the backup extension .BAK to .BK1, .BK1 to .BK2 and so on, through to .BK8 to .BK9. The oldest backup, previously .BK9 will be overwritten. Recover previous versions by loading the backup file and saving it under the correct file name.

Generate using wizard

Only available for Report Designer and GL Financial Report Designer. See Report Designer Wizard.

Export Column and Row Wizard

Opens the Export Column and Row Wizard to analyse Label and Expression components, and adjust Columns, Rows and Column Width properties to be valid for exporting.

Export Column and Row Checker (Ctrl+E)

Opens the Export Column and Row checker. This checks for conflicts and expressions and labels not exported.

Execute Report (Ctrl+R)

Run the report. You can test against the number of records specified in Report Designer Preferences. Results are shown on the screen in Report Preview.

Run report to PDF (Ctrl+R)

Run the report to PDF format and view in PDF Viewer.

Note: If you experience issues with Adobe pdf reader running embedded or prefer to open in your default PDF Viewer Unselect the Use Adobe PDF reader embedded preference under View > Preferences > Trouble-shooting tab.

Cut
(Ctrl+X)

Cut selected component, text or figures to the clipboard.

Copy
(Ctrl+C)

Copy selected component, text or figures to the clipboard.

Paste
(Ctrl+V)

Paste previously cut or copied component, text or figures from the clipboard.

Undo
(Ctrl+Z)

Undo the last editing operation.

Redo
(Ctrl+Y)

Redo the last editing operation.

Filter Selection Types

Use the filter to only select components of a particular type.

When a filter is applied, use Shift+drag mouse (or Ctrl+drag mouse depending on Preference) to select components in an area, or Ctrl+A to select all components in a band. Only components of the types selected in the filter will be selected.

Filter Types

When Filter Selection Types is applied, this lists the types of components selected in the filter.

Encoding

File encoding for the report is displayed.

Default File Encoding may be changed in System Settings - Encoding.

Saving a file will use the selected encoding.

Iterator Panel (Custom Reports)

Query Bands

Click Select Bands (F2) to select the query bands to be included when the report is produced.

Edit Query (Alt+Q)

Edit the SQL Query for the report. Opens the Report Designer - Edit Query form.

Iterator Panel (Document Designers)

The fields for a pre-defined panel are:

Name

Iterator name, indicating the iterator's use. For referring to iterators in MaxBasic code, add the prefix "it" to the name (for example, itLines).

Bands

Select the Detail Bands from the Design Window to use to render the data for this iterator. Normally there would be a single band per iterator but multiple bands are permitted, usually when a band is optional, depending on the data being printed. To select (or reorder) the bands for an iterator, click Select Bands (F2)to show band details for the iterator.

Sort Order

Iterators that iterate over multiple records provide optional sorting of those records. To add a sort, click Open Code Editor (F2).

Filter

To apply a filter to select a subset of the available records, click Open Code Editor (F2).

Property Editor

The Property Editor shows the property settings for the component selected in the Design Window. If more than one component is selected, properties for the selected components are shown. Components can also be selected from the drop down at the top of Property Editor (listed alphabetically). See also the Report Designer Report Properties.

Property Name

The Component's Property Name is displayed above the Property Editor. Drop down to select a different component. Click Return to Parent (Shift+Esc) to go to the component's parent component.

Code Properties

Code properties display (Code) as their Value in the Property Editor. To view the code:

• Click Open Code Editor (F2)in the Value field to open the Code Editor and build MaxBasic expressions.
• Code is displayed in the Code Editor panel at the bottom of the Report Editor.

Code Editor is available for the:

• BeforeReport code segment of a Report.
• BeforeBand and AfterBand code segments of a Band.
• Expression property of an Expression component.
• Text property of a Label component.
• MemoPath property of a Memo component.
• PicturePath property of a picture component.

Users Property

Click Open User List (F2) in the Users property of the Report to edit User List of users who can access the report.