Lines and Boxes

Adding lines and boxes to a report can make it easier to read as well as visually grouping items for business users.

To add lines under each Detail section as well as a box around each group, follow these steps:

1.	View Chap9_1.rpt in Design mode. If the report is not already open, open it using Ctrl+O. Make sure that the report is in Design Mode by choosing Ctrl+D.
2.	Insert the line by Choosing Insert, Line. The mouse changes to a pencil. Move the mouse to the bottom-left of the fields in the Details Section. Hold down the left mouse button to begin drawing the line. Scroll the mouse to the right until you reach the end of the Details Section. Once reached, release the mouse button.
3.	View the result in Preview mode. Select F5 to refresh the report to see the line with the data as shown in Figure 9.3. Figure 9.3. Use the Preview mode view of a report to show a line under each detail record.
4.	Add the box by choosing Insert, Box. The mouse changes to a pencil. Move the mouse to the top-left of the Country/Pays USA data in the Group Header. Hold down the left mouse button to begin drawing the box. Scroll the mouse down to the bottom left of the Summary amount in the Group Footer and then scroll to the right until the end of the Group Footer section. Once reached, release the mouse button. The resulting box should appear similar to Figure 9.4. Figure 9.4. Preview a report to show lines and boxes.
5.	Choose File, Save As and save the report as Chap9_2.rpt.

Tip

A feature of boxes is that they can be rounded. To do this right-click on a box, choose Format Box, and select the Rounding tab. The rounding factor can be changed by the slide or the percentage buttons. Figure 9.5 shows how Xtreme's report would look with a rounded box at 30%.

Figure 9.5. Preview of a report showing rounded boxes.