9 Printable Report
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Printable Reports
Reports should be studied by each User in an effort to work out what reports relate best to your needs. This applies to all Reports within the ERP database. The Printing Report Options is a very advanced printing options menu that is available for selection when printing Lists and most Reports within ERP. The options enable you to further customise what you are printing, e.g. remove columns that you do not want to print, change fonts and sizes plus much more. The Printing Report Options are not available when printing default template reports like the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Reports.
There are a few basic rules that apply to ERP Reports. These are as follows: Filtering; Searching; Exporting; Customising; Printing; are all standard features of ERP reports. Reports are either Real Time, As At a particular point in time, e.g. Balance Sheet and Trial Balance Reports (this can be both). OR they are Date Range / Custom Range specific, meaning data can be viewed for a particular time frame. Some reports can be viewed in Summary, Detail or Extra Detail modes. Report figures are drillable, i.e. you can drill into the transaction The Accounts Receivable and Payable Reports will load in Summary mode.
Do you know how to get an average, max, min or sum of a column in a printable report?
How to use Report Printing Options
NB: The Report Options screen has many varied choices for your printing preferences. Below is an overview of each tab within the Report Option screen. Some areas are explained in greater detail than others, as they are more commonly used.
We highly recommend that you take the time to review the options available, to ascertain which options are going to be more beneficial to you as a User.
Select any Report or List, e.g. Accounts Receivable List Select the Print Button
Select File/Report Options or Ctrl + O This will load the Report Options screen
From within the Report Option screen the File, View, and Help drop-down menus will give you access to the following. File - Preview, Output Destination, Print, Printer Setup, Save Options, Exit View - (depending on what tab is displayed - see below), General, Output, Styles, Titles, Setup, Widths, Toggle Pages Visibility Help - Will load the Report Options User Manual
Select the Contents tab to display the list of Help options.
Familiar icons like Save , Print , Preview are used for User friendliness. Select from the drop-down options 'Printer', 'Text File', 'Export Data'
Select the Printer Setup icon to enable you to change the printer or setup of the printout.
Each tab within the Report Options, i.e. General, Output, Style, Titles, Setup, Widths, have many specialised settings. Select the General tab.
· The Print What? section allows you to choose what part of the document you wish to print. e.g. Entire Grid will print what is displayed in the preview. Current Page will print just the current page.
· Selecting the Window Snapshot radio button will load a new drop-down selection field. · Note that the Preview icon, the Formatting Options, and the Auto Sizzing (TM) dropdown are no longer available for selection when this radio button is chosen. · Snapshot is now the highlighted message bottom right of screen. · Select the Print icon to print your selection.
· Formatting Options:
· Starting Line# - Line # is an optional incrementing column that starts at this value. See 'Include' on 'Styles' page. · Panels Across Page - Narrow grids can print up to 10 across the page. · Inter-panel Gap - Space between panels · Text Truncation Symbol - Symbol gets printed to indicate not all text was printed for the cell. · Horiz. Line Frequency - A horizontal line is printed after 'x' data lines.
· Column Titles - Column Titles can be Left, Right, Center justified within column width. · # of Fixed Columns - # of columns counting from the left, which are repeated on each horizontal page. · Max String Column Width - Maximum String column width in characters. · Max # of String Lines - Maximum # of wordwrapped lines for string cells. · Max Memo Column Width - Max memo column width in characters.
· Max # of Memo Lines - Max # of wordwrapped lines for memo cell.
· Dataset Record Counting:
· Physically Count Records - Count the # of records (Can be quite slow for TQuery so use Estimate instead). · Estimate # of Records - Use estimate to speed up large TQuery datasets.
· AutoSizzing(TM):
· Limit Rows to Autosize - Method to calc column widths. · Autosize All Rows - Method to calc column widths. · Use Current Column Sizes - Method to calc column widths.
· At the base of the Report Options screen (all tabs), you will find the following information:
· Total Report Width - Width of report including all horizontal reports. · "124 Lines h…" - Printable area on the page. · "TELE_2…" - Output Destination. · "4 Pages Across" - Wide Reports may print on several pages horizontally. Use Shrink to page or Landscape.
· The Output tab allows you to select the output options, e.g. shrink to fit to page, set margins, export etc.
· Output Options - Shrink to Page
· Output Options - Expand to Page - note it will print 7 pages across.
· Export Options - the Output needs to be set to Export Data Refer to the Report Options Help for further instructions.
· Default Printer - Tick to send to your system default printer. · Default Printer - Un-tick to select a printer to send printout to.
· Margins - Set margins by Page and by Cell from Top to Bottom and Left to Right.
· Report Position - Orientation: Portrait, Landscape, Printer Default. · Report Position - Alignment: Left Justify, Right Justify, Center Justify.
· The Style tab allows you to format the font type and size, and what columns you want in the printout, include borders and lines etc.
· Output Quality - IBM LineDraw or ASCII LineDraw are the available two options.
· Fixed Text Font - Choose Font - select the button beside font field to load the Font selection screen. · Font Size - Choose Font size - change the font size directly in this field or from within the Font selection screen.
· Include - Select the tick box beside the styles you wish to include in your printout. For further details on each selection, refer to the Help section in Report Options.
· Column Name - This section enables you to choose the columns you wish to include in your printout format for this report.
· Visible - Double-click to remove the X from any column you do not wish to appear in the printout, e.g. remove the X from the Type column so it does not display in the printout.
· Column Total - To add a total to the bottom of a column, you can select the following choices from the drop-down box, e.g. Select Sum to be the total at the bottom of the Original Amount column.
· Format String - Formatting Strings requires knowledge on how to write a string. For assistance refer to Help (F1).
· Group Breaks - is the number of sorted columns starting from the left that are designated as Group Break Columns. The column titles on the Styles page will darken to indicate which columns are Group Break Columns. You must also set Group Break Lines in the Include list box. To prevent group breaks from printing set # of Group Break Columns to zero. · Repeating Group Break Value - is normally left blank, but it can be any string such as """ or "(Same)" etc. Do not enter the surrounding quotes unless you want them to appear in the report.
· Adjacent Group Break Lines - adds a horizontal break line when two group break rows are at the same level. This field is usually left blank in order to save vertical space. See Help (F1) for examples from within the Report Options screen.
· The Titles tab allows you to add Titles and Memos to your report, set a specific locations.
· Memo Locations - In addition to the actual data that is printed, the report can also print various memo fields at different locations. They provide you with a means of adding a description or title to the report. Refer to Help (F1) for further information.
Report Titles & Memos
· Alignment - Left, Right or Center Justify Titles or Memos on the page. · Horizontal Margins - The Left Margin % determines where the left edge of the memo will print on the page. This is a percentage of the report width. The allowable values are 0 to 90%. Memo Width - This value determines how wide to make the memo relative to the width of the page. The value can range from 10% to 100%. · Vertical Margins - The Space Above Memo will add one or more blank lines above the memo. The Space Below Memo will add one or more blank lines below the memo.
· The Setup tab allows you to set specific options for each report, e.g. Read Only, Preview. Set security levels for the Report, determine which Display Pages can be viewed, and set memo strings.
· Report Options Window - Select the tick box beside the options you wish to turn. Refer to Help (F1) from within the Report Options screen for further detail.
· Security - Select the tick box beside the options you wish to create a password for, i.e. Report, Report Options, or Report Setup. · The Password entry screen will load for you to enter the password for your selection. · Enter the Password and select OK to save the password. · To remove a Password, delete the word and leave the field blank, select OK.
· Display Pages - Select the tick box beside the Tab options you wish to view inside the Report Options Screen, i.e. General, Output, Style, Titles, Setup. · For example, un-tick General. · Select Close and save the changes as prompted.
· Re-open the Report Options screen. · Note: The General tab is no longer available in the display.
· Memo Format - The report memos can have embedded characters like ^D and ^T to display the date and time respectively. If the Memo Date Format String field or the Memo Time Format String field is left blank, the date or time will be formatted using the formatting defaults for the compiled program which is adequate in most cases. You may never need to enter anything into these 2 format strings unless you want to override the default formats for the date and time.
· Refer to Help (F1) from within the Report Options screen for further detail.
· Using the Report Options Help (F1) is very easy. · Select Help from the top toolbar of the 'Report Options' screen.
· The Report Options Help Manual will load onto the General tab.
· From within the Help Manual move the mouse to what you want to know about until the Hand displays, then left mouse click to load that data. · e.g. Select the Setup tab to load the manual for the setup section.
· From within the Setup section, move the mouse again to hover over what you want to know about until the Hand displays, then left mouse click again. · e.g. Click on Report Password to load the manual for the Password Security section of the manual.
