Formatting in the Reports Editor

For a format intended for printing, the program automatically calculates column widths.

However, this option may not produce the desired results. You can set the width of each column yourself by placing the mouse pointer at the intersection of two columns, at their headers. In a Pivot table report, the width chosen for the central column will affect all categories.

In the contextual menu, commands allow you to intervene on the typographic attributes of the selection (cell, row or column): choice of font, size (in points), bold, italic, underline, color and alignment.

As you format a report for printing, don't hesitate to use the Preview command in the File menu to preview the result.

Format values

Numeric, date and Boolean field values can be formatted. In the absence of any indication of their format, numerical values, in particular, are extracted "raw", i.e. you only get the significant figures. For better presentation, it's best to format them, by writing a format in the Format line.

In a List report, the format affects the values of the entire column, and therefore also the values calculated in the subtotal rows.

The most common codes used to write a format are the hash and the zero. The other characters that may make up the format are displayed as they are (use the comma for the thousands separator and the dot for the decimal separator, which will be replaced by the characters defined in your computer's system preferences). Here are some examples with a value of 1236.7 :

The hash (#)

The sharps are replaced by the digits of the numerical value. When the number of significant digits is less than the number of sharps, the remaining sharps on the left are removed, as are any unnecessary wrapping characters, such as the thousands separator.

The zero (0)

The zeros are replaced by the digits of the numerical value. If the number of significant digits is less than the number of zeros, the remaining zeros on the left in the integer part or on the right in the decimal part are "forced".

Totals spacing

If the report is of the List type and contains subtotals, you can further enhance the presentation of the document: you can ask for a page break to be caused after a subtotal is printed, or for the subtotal to be highlighted with a different line spacing. These settings can be made separately for each subtotal level, so you need to select the subtotal line to be formatted before setting these options in the context menu.

Repeat sort criteria in subtotal rows

In subtotal lines and the Grand Total line of a List report, you can insert fixed text and use a code (the # sign) to make the values calculated by a calculation function more explicit. In the example below, the text "Turnover all categories" has been entered in the cell to the left of the Sum function for the Grand Total line.

As the report is sorted by debtor category, in the sub-total line printed for each category, the # sign is replaced by the category for which the Sum is calculated. For example, "Total for Resellers".