Report Options - Reporting4Act!

The Options page in the Reports Explorer lets you specify some report options.

Different options appear for different report types. The options for quick and cross-tab reports are:

Use same options next time report is run: if this option is turned on, all options specified in this page except Report Date, Start Page, and End Page are used as the defaults the next time the report is selected.
Header: text that appears at the top of every page. If you want to use an expression rather than fixed text, such as a user-defined function, add "{" and "}" (without the quotes) around field or function names in the text. (Previous versions allowed you to enter an equals sign followed by an expression; this is still supported but braces are easier to use.) Here's an example of an expression that displays "Sales for spelled out month year" (such as "Sales for December 2001") in the report header:
```
  Sales for {cmonth(date())} {year(date())}
```
Here's an expression that uses the built-in GetConditionValue function, which returns the value of a filter condition for the specified field, to display a header showing "Sales for Country", where Country is the country the report is filtered on:
```
Sales for {GetConditionValue('customers.country')}
```
Expressions can even include fields from the result set for the report.
Footer: text that appears at the bottom of every page. As with the header, you can use an expression for the report footer.
Orientation: the default choice, "Automatic," means that if the report is too wide to fit in portrait orientation, it automatically switches to landscape. However, you can override this by choosing either "Portrait" or "Landscape" to force the report to be printed in the desired orientation.
Left margin: how many characters to indent the entire report; this is handy if, for example, you want to print a report and punch holes in it so it can be inserted into a binder.
Report date: the date to put on the report. The default is the current date, but entering a different date might be useful, for example, to backdate reports to the end of the previous month.
Start page: the first page to print. The default is 1 (start from the first page), but you can enter a higher number to start from another page.
End page: the last page to print. The default is 9,999 (print to the last page in the report), but you can enter a smaller number to end at another page.
Include filter in report header: if this option is turned on, any filter you've set for the report displays in the header of the report.
Include database in header: turn this option on to include the database name in the header of the report.
Run report with no records: turn this option on to run the report even when there are no records that match your filter conditions. This results in a blank report. If this option is turned off, rather than displaying a blank report, Reporting4Act! displays a message that there are no records.
Summary report: if this item is turned on, the report does not print detail information but only grouped and totaled fields. This option is disabled unless there's at least one group in the report and doesn't appear for cross-tab reports.
Show totals in group headers: turn this option on to show totals in the group header; with this turned off, totals appear in the group footer. This option is disabled if there aren't any groups in the report or if any field has its Summary option set to "Count Distinct" and it doesn't appear for cross-tab reports.
Auto-fit to page: Reporting4Act! normally moves fields to a second row when there are too many to fit on one. If you turn this option on, it automatically reduces the font as necessary (down to 6 points) in an attempt to fit the fields on one row. Of course, it's still possible they won't fit on one row, depending on how many fields you've chosen, the paper width, the orientation, the font, and the font size. This option doesn't appear for cross-tab reports.

The options for chart, gauge, and external VFP reports are:

Start page: the first page to print. The default is 1 (start from the first page), but you can enter a higher number to start from another page.
End page: the last page to print. The default is 9,999 (print to the last page in the report), but you can enter a smaller number to end at another page.

The options for labels are:

Use same options next time report is run: if this option is turned on, the selected label style is used as the default the next time the report is selected.
Label style: choose the desired Avery label number from the drop-down list of choices. In addition to showing the number, the dimensions of the label are also displayed. Note that if you choose a label that isn't tall enough for the fields in the report (for example, the report has eight fields but you specify a 1" high label which can only accommodate six lines), the text in the label is cut off. Be sure to preview the report to ensure you've selected the correct label size. A rule of thumb to use is that labels will print six lines per inch.

The options for Crystal reports are:

Use same options next time report is run: if this option is turned on, the Orientation option is used as the default the next time the report is selected.
Orientation: the default choice, "Automatic," means that if the report is too wide to fit in portrait orientation, it automatically switches to landscape. However, you can override this by choosing either "Portrait" or "Landscape" to force the report to be printed in the desired orientation.
Report date: the date to put on the report. The default is the current date, but entering a different date might be useful, for example, to backdate reports to the end of the previous month.
Start page: the first page to print. The default is 1 (start from the first page), but you can enter a higher number to start from another page.
End page: the last page to print. The default is 9,999 (print to the last page in the report), but you can enter a smaller number to end at another page.