The Report Designer department is exactly what it sounds like: it's where all Reports, Charts and Labels are created and which populate each Print menu on the Toolbars for each form and Datagrid.  When users choose a print option from the menu, they may be prompted for additional information.

Overview
Any designs you build in any of the designers are stored in the same database as your data, which means that all changes are available to all users without manually having to distribute new print options.

The Reports tab is used to create the items you see in the 'Reports' section of a print menu. You can build reports that report only on the current record or on many.

Please click here for general information about using the Toolbar, Form and Fields.

The Report Designer
Each report needs a design or template defined so the report knows how to present the data you want to report on. The Report Designer provides an interface for you to build professional looking reports that can automatically use your company logo and information (from the 'Company Information' tab) on each report.

Creating A New Report Design
Click the 'New' button on the toolbar; then enter:

Report Title - This is what will be displayed in the Print Menu in the order you specify in the 'Menu Display Order' field (see below). If you want to put a line separator in the print menu BEFORE this print option, put a hyphen at the end of the name. For example, to put a line above a print option called 'Company Contacts" enter the Report Title as 'Company Contacts-' (no quotes, but note the hyphen at the end).

Table Name - This determines in which print menu this option will appear. For example, if you are creating a Report about Company policies, choose the 'Company' table, which makes this report available from the Company print menu only.

Description - This isn't displayed anywhere on the print menu, but gives you a place to describe what the print option is. Since you can print a report about Reports (from the Reports print menu), users can get a short summary of what each print option is by reading the Description.

Menu Display Order - This lets you manually decide what order the print options are displayed in on the print menu. The items are sorted first by the number value in this field, then alphabetically by the Report Title if the Menu Display Order numbers are the same.

Show in Print Current Record Menu - This is the first of two sections from where Reports are accessible on the print menus. Checking this box tells the user that the print option will print ONLY the current record they're reading.

Show in Reports Menu - This is the second of two sections from where Reports are accessible on the print menus. Checking this box tells the user that the report will run on multiple records based on the Data Query (below) and may allow the user to select filter options.

Data Query - This is a standard SQL query that reads the data you need for the report. Users with substantial SQL skills can manually 'tweak' this query, but the best way to start is by clicking the 'Query Builder' button to select the query options. When you click 'OK' on the Query Builder' the query will display in this field. Please click the 'Help' button on the Query Builder toolbar for assistance.

The Active Checkbox - When this is checked the print option is put on the 'Table Name's' print menu. To remove a print option, uncheck this box. This is checked by default when creating a new record, but unchecking it gives you the opportunity to test your print design from this tab before other users will see it on their print menus.

Adding Reports To Other Departments