Templates and Standard Report Styles

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Templates and standard report styles allow you to format documents with pre-defined settings. A template is a particular kind of file within BusinessObjects that allows you to include a company logo and a document classification (confidential, public information, and so on) in headers and footers. Templates have a .ret extension and are stored in \Business Objects\BusinessObjects 5.0\Template. Templates also allow you to specify an initial block type and formatting options when creating a new document.

Standard report styles exist within a global template file, default.ret. They control the formatting of the different report components (section headers, table block, crosstab block) described in Chapter 16. Unless your administrator has provided you with a modified default.ret file, the settings in this file create the standard yellow table with blue column headings. Once you are comfortable formatting the various components of a report, modifying the standard report styles is the best way to apply a consistent format to all reports you create. When you modify standard report styles, BusinessObjects automatically saves the changes to default.ret.

Note 

If you are the BusinessObjects administrator and want the standard report styles applied to all users’ reports, you must modify your default.ret file and ensure the modified version is installed for all full-client users.

In order to ensure a consistent appearance to all documents, you need to create at least two files, a template that contains the desired header and footer and a modified default.ret that contains report components with the desired color and font settings.

Templates

In the following example, you want to modify the default header and footer to include a company logo, a document refresh date, and page numbers. The default initial block type is a crosstab and a master/detail report. In developing a template, you work with an existing document.

Company Logos

To insert a company logo, you insert a picture cell. Therefore, you must first have access to your company logo as a bitmap or tagged image format file. When you insert a picture into a report, the path to the report is also inserted; BusinessObjects then looks for a separate picture file in the specific path. This can pose problems when sharing documents with other users. To force BusinessObjects to look for the picture file in the same directory as the document, remove the path from the cell. As an alternative, if the size of the logo in the .bmp or .tif file corresponds to the actual logo size, use Insert | Object, Create From File. This directly imports the picture into the report. The downside is the report file becomes larger, but the benefit is that the report no longer looks for a separate image file.

  1. Open an existing document by selecting File | Open or clicking the Open button from the toolbar.

  2. Be sure Report Manager is open and in Map/Structure mode. Select Report Manager from the standard toolbar, then click the Map tab. From within the Map tab, select the Structure icon.

  3. Select the report tab that contains the desired block layout—in this example, Crosstab_Vintage.

  4. Select View | Page Layout so that you see the Page Header and Page Footer.

  5. Select Insert | Picture.

  6. The mouse cursor becomes an insert picture cell icon (looks a bit like a mountain). Position it in the Header section and drag it to create a cell the approximate size of your company logo.

    Note 

    The size of the cell is important in preserving the shape of the logo. BusinessObjects provides no way to preserve aspect ratios as other graphics programs do.

  7. BusinessObjects will prompt you to select a bitmap or tagged image file. Select the desired file and click Open. In the Report window, BusinessObjects displays the logo. Report Manager shows a new cell under Page Header.

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  8. The default cell format for a Page Header includes a border. Click the No Border button from the formatting toolbar.

Special Fields

BusinessObjects allows you to insert special fields for commonly used document information such as current date, last refresh date, and page numbers. You can access additional information through report formulas. With report formulas, for example, you can create a formula to display either the original document author (DocumentAuthor) or the user logged into the repository (CurrentUser). Refer to Chapter 18 for additional instructions on report formulas. In the following example, you will add two cells to display a last refresh date and a page number.

  1. Within the Report window, scroll to the Page Footer. Alternatively, from within Report Manager, in Map/Structure view, select Page Footer.

  2. From the pull-down menu, select Insert | Special Field | Date and Time | Last Refresh. If you have more than one data source, BusinessObjects prompts you to select a query for the refresh date.

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  3. The mouse pointer becomes an insert cell cursor. Position your cursor to the left-hand side of the footer and drag the mouse to the desired cell size.

  4. Select Insert | Special Field | Page Numbers | Page # of #. The mouse pointer again becomes an insert cell cursor. Position the cursor to the right-hand side of the footer. Your footer should now appear as follows:

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  5. You can remove the cell borders by selecting both cells in the Report window (use CTRL-click to select both footer cells); from within Report Manager, you can select and format only one cell at a time.

  6. From the toolbar, click the No Border button.

Save As Template

Once you have included the desired headers and footers, save the document as a template to be applied to other reports.

  1. From the pull-down menu, select File | Save As.

  2. Give the template a meaningful name: Table with Logo.

  3. Click the drop-down menu Save As Type and select BusinessObjects Templates.

  4. Click OK.

Apply Template

You can apply the template to existing reports by selecting Format | Report | Apply Template. Additionally, when you create a new document, you can have BusinessObjects prompt you to select a template. To enable this option:

  1. Select Tools | Options.

  2. Select the New Document tab.

  3. Check the box Select A Template to have BusinessObjects prompt you for a template name.

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  4. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

Standard Report Styles

To modify the standard report styles, select Format | Standard Report Styles (see Figure 17-13). Under Report Components, BusinessObjects displays the different block types and sections of a report. The tabs General, Page Layout, Border, and Shading are similar to those for individual cells and tables.

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Figure 17-13: Standard report styles define formatting options for all report components.



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Business Objects(c) The Complete Reference
Cisco Field Manual: Catalyst Switch Configuration
ISBN: 72262656
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 206

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