Understanding How Templates Work

A lot of report formatting tasks were accomplished in the two minutes it took to apply the template in the previous exercise, including

• Adding the Business Objects logo to the report (along with its ToolTip and hyperlink) from the Crystal Repository

• Adding an image that says Confidential as an underlay to each page of the report

• Modifying the fonts and positions of all the database fields

• Adding dashed lines between all items in the Details Section

• Adding a rounded box at the top of the page

• Using a rounded box to show where groups start and end

Tip

One of the more advantageous features of templates is that even if more fields are in the target report's Details section than the template has, it duplicates the data field formatting for those extra fields. It puts them into a separate Detail Section (usually titled Details B) so that they will all appear together but they won't overwrite each other. You can then move the fields around without having to worry about applying the same formatting by hand.