Editing the Layout of a duplicated report

Updated by Cheryl Wallace

The Layout tab determines how data will appear on the report page. It also determines how the data is grouped and whether there are totals.

Any report with a layout design template will be copied with the same layout design template. Any changes to the Layout tab are ignored unless exported. This includes most reports that look like forms and label reports (barcode and QR code).
Group headers are always sorted by the first column in the group regardless of the Sorting tab settings.
See this video discussing duplicating reports and walkthroughs of simple and complex examples.

Different actions to modify the look of the final report are described below

Move a column

Works only with columns in the Detail band or Group Headers. The Report footer and Group Footers are aligned with the Detail Band and any Group Footers are aligned with the corresponding Group Header on these columns.

  1. Click a column cell then drag and drop it to the new position.
  2. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Increase or decrease the width of a column

Most frequently this will be used to increase the number of default columns to span to prevent word wrapping on long text field columns.

  1. Right-click on the column cell in the Detail band.
  2. Increase or decrease the Column Span value and click Ok.
  3. Click to save the changes

Change the date format

Override the default date format to use your preferred date format such as yy-MM-dd, yyyy-MMM-dd, yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm tt, or dddd, dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss.

Removing a manually entered date format will return to the default date format.

  1. Right-click on the column cell in the Detail band.
  2. Enter the new Date Format and click Ok.
  3. Click to save the changes.

Add a blank line in the Detail band to increase readability

  1. Click to the left in the grey zone of the Detail band.
  2. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Remove a detail row to condense a report

  1. Move all columns out of the lowest row in the Detail band to rows above.
  2. Click to the right of the row.
  3. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Remove a Group Header

Group headers are numbered. Group headers can only be removed if there are more than 1. When removing a Group header, the corresponding Group footer is also removed.

  1. Move all columns out of the topmost row in the Group Header band to other Group Header bands or the Detail band.
  2. Click to the right of the row.
  3. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Add a Group Header

Generally the Sorting order needs to support the same levels of Groups on the report. Group headers start at 1 to match the first Sorting order. Additional Group headers will be numbered sequentially but appear above the last group.

  1. Click to the left of Group Header(s). A new blank row will be displayed. A Group footer is also added at before the Report footer, mirroring the Detail band.
  2. Drag and drop the column cells to appear in the new group into the new Group Header.
  3. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Add a blank row to a Group Header

  1. Click to the left in the grey zone of the Group Header.
  2. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Move a column from the Detail Band to the Group Header

  1. Click a column cell in the Detail band then drag and drop it to the new position in the desired Group Header.
  2. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Add a Total to a Group footer

  1. Right-click on any numeric column cell in the Group footer.
  2. Select Sum in the Aggregates list.
  3. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

Add a Total to a Report footer (report total)

  1. Right-click on any numeric column cell in the Report footer.
  2. Select Sum in the Aggregates list.
  3. Click to save the changes and update the Layout view.

See also:

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