Banded Report

Understanding Bands

Creating a report is a like writing a letter.  You start with an opening paragraph followed by topics, sub-topics, detailed comments and final conclusions.  Of course, letters are not required to follow this or any structure.  Reports, however, are structured documents.  They follow a strict outline that helps you turn raw data into meaningful information.  For example, a report may begin with a Report Header, which summarizes the purpose of the report and only appears on the first page.  Likewise, when the report has completed, you may want a Report Footer, which can typically contain Grand Totals and Averages etc. for the entire report.

As the graphic above shows, all sections with a Header have an alter ego, the Footer.  You cannot delete a Header without deleting the corresponding Footer first.

The second type of section is the Page Header, which always appears at the top of the page.  Its alter ego, the Page Footer, always appears at the bottom of the page.  The Page Header sections are especially useful for displaying page number, report title and other information that must appear on each page of the report.  The Page Header and Footer produce the same results as the "View, Header and Footer" menu in Microsoft Word but are defined differently.

The third type of section, the Group Header combines records from two tables that have a master-detail relationship and presents them in an easily understandable format.  For example, suppose we have Equipment and PM tables and we want to print a list of PM IDs for each piece of Equipment.  As the listing below shows, the Equipment ID and Description is repeated for each PM ID when data is placed in a Detail Band without the use of a Group Header.

By adding a Group Header that included the Equipment information, assigning the PM information to the detail band and placing Titles and a logo in the Page Header we are able to produce the report shown below.

Designing a report

Now let's design a report.  We will use the Equipment PM Listing we already created as a starting point.

Start the Report Writer.  Select the Equipment database.  Click on the Start Report Button.  Click on the Open  Icon and double click on Equipment PM Listing to open the Report.

Click on File at the left of the screen, then click on Save As, type "Equipment PM Report: in the Save As box and click on the Save Button to save the renamed report.

Click on the Layout Tab.

To arrange sections, press the Page Designer icon  or right mouse click on the layout and select the "Arrange Sections" menu to display the following dialog:

The Arrange Sections tab of the Page Designer displays all active sections of a report in a hierarchical format.  If a section has been suppressed from printing (see Edit Section), the word "(Suppressed)" will appear to the right of the section name. 

You can perform the following actions from the Add Section dialog:

Edit - Pressing the button to the immediate right of a section displays the Edit Section dialog, allowing you to edit properties of existing sections, and add footers to existing headers.

Add - Pressing the Add button displays the Add Sections Wizard, which walks you through the process of adding one or more sections to a report.

Delete - The Delete button removes a section and all of its objects from a report (use with caution).

Pop-up menu options - Press the right mouse button on the Page Designer dialog to display its pop-up menu.  This menu displays Report Setup, allows you to set the default font, and set the Page Designer's "Stay On Top" status.

We will not be using Report Headers, Report Footers or Page Footers on this report.

Highlight Report Footer and click on the Delete Button.  Confirm deletion.

Highlight Report Header and click on the Delete Button.  Confirm deletion.

Highlight Page Footer and click on the Delete Button.  Confirm deletion.

Click on the Add Button.  The following Window will appear:

Place a checkmark in the Group Header checkbox and click on the Next Button.  The following Window will appear:

Highlight the Equipment ID and click on > to move it to the Selected Fields column.  Click on the Next Button and finish the insertion of Equipment ID Group Header.  The Arrange Sections Tab should now appear as follows:

Close the Page Designer Window.  The Layout Window should now appear as follows:

Save the Report.

The following Window will appear:

Click on the Save Button and the following verification screen will appear:

Click on the Yes Button.

Page Header Section

Now, we are ready to place objects on the report. Note - The red lines are the report's margins

Right click on the Layout and select Place Objects. Select the Image Icon and click on the Layout.  The following screen will be displayed:

When the Select Image screen is displayed, navigate to the Mapcon Lite directory.  Note: the default installation path is: C:\Program Files\MTI\Mapcon Lite.

Double click on MTl.bmp. Move the resulting image to the Report Header at the top left margin.

If the Page Designer is not visible, right click on the Layout and select the Place Tab. Select the L Icon (Label) and click on the Layout in the Page Header area. Right click on the Label and select Edit Caption. The Page Designer will now appear as follows:

Replace the word Label in the Edit Box with "Mapcon Technologies, Inc.".  Click on the Properties Tab.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 14, Bold and click on the OK Button.  Increase the size of the Label until the complete text appears, align it to the top Margin and center it between the left and right margins.

Close the Page Designer.

Click on the Preview Tab, set the Preview to 75% and check the placement to see it is satisfactory. Return to the Layout Tab and make any adjustments that are necessary.  Do this whenever desired to make sure that you are satisfied with the report's appearance.

Right click on the Layout and select Place Objects.  Select the Place Tab.  Select the L Icon (Label) and click on the Layout in the Page Header area.  Right click on the Label and select Edit Caption.  Replace the word Label in the Edit Box with "6000 Douglas Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50322". Click on the Properties Tab.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 12, Bold and click on the OK Button.  Increase the size of the Label until the complete text appears, align it below the first label and center it between the left and right margins

Select the Place Tab. Select the L Icon (Label) and click on the Layout in the Page Header area.  Right click on the Label and select Edit Caption. Replace the word Label in the Edit Box with "Equipment PMs Report". Click on the Properties Tab.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 12, Bold and click on the OK Button. Increase the size of the Label until the complete text appears, align it below the second label and center it under the last 0 in the word number 6000.

Select the Place Tab. Select the Date Icon and click on the Layout in the Page Header area.  Place it to the right of the third label and align it with the third label.

If you have trouble with alignment, place the cursor on the top ruler, drag it to just under the third line and snap both objects on the third line to the ruler.

Select the Place Tab.  Select the Horizontal Line Icon and click on the Layout in the Page Header area.  Right click on the Line and select Customize Objects.  Set the Line Width to 3.  Drag the Line until it is just under the third line in the Page Header and so that it starts at the left margin.  Grab the right side of the Line and stretch it until it extends to the right margin.  The Page Header Section should look like this:

Group Header Section

Now, let's proceed with the Group Header Section.  We want to place data from the master record in this Section.  In this case, the master record is the Equipment record.

Only one line of text will appear in the Group Header Section.  Drag the ruler line into the Group Header Section and adjust it so that there is room for only one line at the top of the section.  Drag the blue line at the bottom of the Page Header Section to just under the ruler line.

Select the Place Tab.  Drag the Equipment ID to the Group Header Section.  Two objects will appear. The object with the text enclosed by [     ] is the data object.  The other object is the Caption.

Select and right click on the Caption and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 10, Bold and click on the OK Button.  Adjust the size of the Caption until the complete text just fills the Caption area.  Snap it to the ruler line and align it to the left margin.

Select and right click on the Data Object and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 10, Regular and click on the OK Button.  Adjust the size of the Data Object until 15 capitalized characters just fills the Data Object area.  Align it to the ruler line and align it to the left margin.

Select the Place Tab.   Drag the PM Description to the Group Header Section.  Select and right click on the Caption and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 10, Bold and click on the OK Button.  Adjust the size of the Caption until the complete text just fills the Caption area.  Snap it to the ruler line and align it to the left of the existing data.

Select and right click on the Data Object and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 10, Regular and click on the OK Button.  Align it to the ruler line and align it to the left of the Description Caption.  Adjust the size of the Data Object until it extends to the right margin. The Layout should be similar to:

Detail Section

Now, let's proceed with the Detail Section.  We want to place data from the detail record in this section.  In this case, the detail record is the PM Procedure record.  Only one line of text will appear in the Detail Section.  Drag the ruler line into the Detail Section and adjust it so that there is room for only one line at the top of section.  Drag the blue line at the bottom of the Detail Header Section to just under the ruler line.

Select the Place Tab.  Drag the PM ID to the Detail Section.  Select and right click on the Caption and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 10, Bold and click on the OK Button.  Adjust the size of the Caption until the complete text just fills the Caption area.  Snap it to the ruler line and align it to the left margin.

Select and right click on the Data Object and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup. Select 10, Regular and click on the OK Button. Adjust the size of the Data Object until 15 capitalized characters just fills the Data Object area.  Align it to the ruler line and align it to the left margin.

Select the Place Tab.  Drag the PM Description to the Detail Section.  Select and right click on the Caption and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup. Select 10, Bold and click on the OK Button.  Adjust the size of the Caption until the complete text just fills the

Caption area.  Snap it to the ruler line and align it to the right of the existing data.

Select and right click on the Data Object and select Customize Objects.  Scroll to the bottom and invoke the Font Lookup.  Select 10, Regular and click on the OK Button.  Align it to the ruler line and align it to the left of the PM Description Caption.  Adjust the size of the Data Object until it extends to the right margin. The Layout should be similar to:

Click on Preview and print the report.  Note that Equipment 10 Forklift has two PM Procedures attached to it.

This completes the Report Tutorial.  However, the Report Writer has many other capabilities.  For example, explore the many other capabilities of the Value Editor that was used to set up the Query.  You can create filters that limit the record selection, create expressions using data from the tables and use many existing functions such as averages and totals etc.  These capabilities are especially valuable in footer records.