Modifying the Report Layout

The report generated for you by the wizard is a good starting point, but you'll usually need to adjust and enhance it to get exactly what you want. You can customize your report with the C1ReportDesigner.

To start using the Designer, click the Close Print Preview button in the Close Preview group of the Preview tab:

The right pane of the main window switches from Review mode into Design mode, and it shows the controls and fields that make up the report:

The picture shows how the report is divided into sections (Header, Page Header, Detail, and so on). The sections contain fields that hold the labels, variables, and expressions that you want in the printed report. In this example, the Header section contains a label with the report title. The Page Header section contains labels that identify the fields in the Detail section, and the Page Footer section contains fields that show the current time, the page number and the total page count for the report.

The sections of the report determine what each page, group, and the beginning and end of the report look like. The following table describes where each section appears in the report and what it is typically used for:

Section	Appears	Typically Contains
Report Header	Once per report	The report title and summary information for the whole report.
Page Header	Once per page	Labels that describe detail fields, and/or page numbers.
Group Header	Once per group	Fields that identify the current group, and possibly aggregate values for the group (for example, total, percentage of the grand total).
Detail	Once per record	Fields containing data from the source recordset.
Group Footer	Once per group	Aggregate values for the group.
Page Footer	Once per page	Page number, page count, date printed, report name.
Report Footer	Once per report	Summary information for the whole report.

Note that you cannot add and delete sections directly. The number of groups determines the number of sections in a report. Every report has exactly five fixed sections (Report Header/Footer, Page Header/Footer, and Detail) plus two sections per group (a Header and Footer). You can hide sections that you don't want to display by setting their C1.C1Report.Section.Visible property to False.

You can modify sections by changing their properties with the Properties window, or move and resize them with the mouse.

Resizing a Section

To resize a section, select its border and with your mouse pointer drag to the position where you want it. The rulers on the left and on top of the design window show the size of each section (excluding the page margins). Note that you cannot make the section smaller than the height and width required to contain the fields in it. To reduce the size of a section beyond that, move or resize the fields in it first, then resize the Section.

To see how this works, move the mouse to the area between the bottom of the Header section and the gray bar on top of the Page Header Section. The mouse cursor changes to show that you are over the resizing area. Click the mouse and drag the line down until the section is about twice its original height.

Release the mouse button and the section is resized.