Appearance properties

Allows the space allocated to the information to expand or decrease so that it fits on the report.

• True: The width increases and decreases accordingly.
• False: The space is fixed, some information may be concealed. The allocated space is set by the Dimension option of the Properties pane. See Layout properties.

Note: If you use this property with Word Wrap, the height automatically increases or decreases.

Controls the style and colour of the background behind the information.

Typically this is set to Transparent. If you have changed the font colour you may find changing the background colour makes the information easier to read. Or you may want to change the background colour of a box on your report.

See Background style.

Controls the format of the selected barcode.

Select Barcode Format, click the finder button , then select the barcode format.

See Edit Barcode Format.

Controls the style of the border used for boxes, text boxes, barcodes and images.

Select Border, click the finder button , then select the border properties.

See Border style.

Available on a Group Header section.

Use this property to keep together records that contain similar initial characters. The Character Count value sets the number of characters to compare in each record. Records that have matching characters will be kept together on the same page, rather than split up.

For example, suppose the records contain the following:

Thompsons Cafe
Thompsons Restaurant
Thornaby Bakery

If the Character Count is set to 4, then Thompsons Cafe and Thompsons Restaurant would be kept together, as the first 4 characters are the same; but Thornaby bakery would split to the next group.

Conditional formatting is used to draw attention to, or ignore, information when a condition is met. For example, you could use conditional formatting to highlight balances that exceed certain amount, indicate inactive records, or display negative numbers in bold and red.

See Conditional formatting.

An expression tells Report Designer what information to include in a report. When the report is generated, each expression is calculated to produce a value; this value may come directly from the database or be the result of further calculations on the information in the database.

See Expressions.

This displays the path to a linked image, and details such as the image format and size.

Tip: You can change the image by clicking the finder button and browsing for a new file.

A filter removes unwanted information; for example, you could exclude records before a certain date.

See Filter information.

Use Formatting to set date and time formats, numeric properties and fill space formats that are useful when dealing with cheques.

See Formatting properties.

Use this to apply numeric functions such as average, count and sum.

See Function properties.

Available on a Group Header section.

The expression controls how the information is divided into the different sets of information, such as date, name or post code.

Available on a Group Header section.

Use this property to change the ascending or descending order of grouped information sets.

This displays details about an image stored in your report, such as its image format and size.

Tip: You can change the image by clicking the finder button and browsing for a new file.

Available on a Group Header section.

If Keep Together is set to True, the report will try to keep the Group information together and avoid page breaks where possible. A page break will be inserted above the group header if the group starts part of the way down a page, or would be split onto a second page.

Sets a line's style (e.g. solid, dotted), colour and width.

See Line style.

To prevent images from being distorted when they are resized, set Lock Aspect Ratio to True. The proportions of the image will be kept intact when adjusting the width or height.

When printing more than one copy of the document, this option controls whether the information is printed on the first copy only or on all copies. There are two options:

• True: The information only appears on the first copy printed.
• False: The information is printed on every copy.

This displays the name of a subreport.

To view the subreport, select Report, then click the finder button .

Use this to control the sign of positive and negative numbers, or how credit and debit values are displayed.

• Signed: Shows a sign such as -, +.
• Unsigned: Omits signs such as -, +.
• Reversed: Shows the opposite sign for the information returned through the variable or expression.
• Debit: Only shows debit values.
• Credit: Only show credit values.

The Size Method property controls the space allocated to an image.

• Autogrow: Allows the space allocated to the image to expand or decrease so that it fits on the report.
• Stretch: The space allocated to the image is fixed, but the image will shrink or grow to fit the available space.
• Clip: The space allocated to the image is fixed and the image size will be fixed. If the image is too large to fit in the available space, the image will be clipped (so not all the image will be visible).

The following apply to barcodes only:

• AutogrowWidth: the height of the space allocated to the image is fixed, but the width can expand or shrink to accommodate the barcode image.
• AutogrowHeight: the width of the space allocated to the image is fixed, but the height can expand or shrink to accommodate the barcode image.

Apply a defined style to information in your report. Use styles to give your reports a consistent appearance.

See Using styles.

Controls whether the information is printed or not:

• True: The information appears in designer mode but not when previewed or printed.
• False: The information appears in designer, preview and print mode.

You can use a template to project an image of the stationery you're using on your report layout. To select a template, select Template and click the finder button , then select a template file.

Tip: If you want the template to be printed with the report, use the Print Template property.

See Templates for Herb stationery.

Set the appearance for text; such as font, size, colour, bold, underline, and alignment. These properties will override any style properties for the information.

See Text style.

Use a watermark to place text or an image on the background of your report; such as "Draft" or "Confidential", or a company logo.

See Watermarks.

Use Word Wrap to set whether information will wrap onto the next line when it reaches the edge.

If you set Word Wrap to True, you need to ensure there is sufficient height for the information to be displayed, otherwise some may be concealed. To ensure sufficient height is allocated when the report is generated, you could set Auto Grow to True.