Normal Topic Report Formatting Questions (Read 1348 times)
Dulac71
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Report Formatting Questions
Feb 16th, 2004 at 9:51pm
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There have been several moments since the arrival of Sesame when Access was looking pretty good, but in each case I found the answer someplace.  But now I'm stuck - maybe it cannot be done with this HTML report format.

1.  I have a report with several value fields.  They are all left justified on the report (RJ in the database).  Is there a way to align the decimals in the report?

2.  I have subtotals on a field break.  Is it necessary to have the column titles print again before the data resumes after the sutotals?

3.  Is there a way to insert a blank line after the subtotals?

4.  The report totals are two or three digits wider than the data points.  I assume that this is the reason that Sesame printed them out-of-alignment with the columns that they are derived from.  Is that controllable?

  
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Ray the Reaper
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Re: Report Formatting Questions
Reply #1 - Feb 18th, 2004 at 5:04pm
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Quote:
1.  I have a report with several value fields.  They are all left justified on the report (RJ in the database).  Is there a way to align the decimals in the report?


Select the Value box you want Right-Aligned.
Click the "Look" tab of the Property Editor.
Change the Label Alignment to "08 - Right Center"

Quote:
2.  I have subtotals on a field break.  Is it necessary to have the column titles print again before the data resumes after the sutotals?


If you want the Titles to only print once put them in either the View Header or the Report Header. Anything in the Group Header will repeat each time the Group breaks.

Quote:
3.  Is there a way to insert a blank line after the subtotals?


This could probably be done by embedding an HTML <BR>, in either the Group Header or Group Footer.  Whether it goes in the Group Header or the Group Footer depends on your report and your needs.

Quote:
4.  The report totals are two or three digits wider than the data points.  I assume that this is the reason that Sesame printed them out-of-alignment with the columns that they are derived from.  Is that controllable?


Only the Group Header, Group Body and Group Footer are tied together in columns. The other report sections are freeform to allow for greater flexibility. Instead of lining up the grand total under a particular group column, you can use a Static Text Element and a Value Box to print a labelled Grand Total.
Ex.  Annual Income for ABC Company:  $2,090,000.43

  

Raymond Yoxall Consulting
ray.yoxall@gmail.com
ryoxall@lantica.com
Sesame Applications, Design and Support
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JFisher
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Re: Report Formatting Questions
Reply #2 - Feb 18th, 2004 at 11:34pm
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I am somewhat familiar with MS Excel.  So I have had good luck importing the HTML reports into Excel, and then formatting as required, (including sizing, etc.)
Jack Tongue
  
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Re: Report Formatting Questions
Reply #3 - Feb 19th, 2004 at 1:35pm
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This is the main reason we used HTML as the format. It is getting hard to find any "office" applications that don't accept HTML as input. It is a strong cross platform / cross application "page" format.
  

Mark Lasersohn&&Programmer&&Lantica Software, LLC
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Dulac71
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Re: Report Formatting Questions
Reply #4 - Feb 21st, 2004 at 9:51pm
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Thanks for the feedback.  While some of it was useful, it often served to point up areas of Sesame that are weak.

Ray the Reaper:  To my second question, you suggested putting the Titles into the View Header.  I tried that and they ended up all on the left side of the report.  The proper alignment was automatic in Q&A.

To the third suggestion, you basically suggest that I learn HTML to achieve a result that was automatic in Q&A.

To the fourth question, you suggested a workaround to get column totals to actually appear under the column.  Again, this was automatic in Q&A.

JFisher:  You suggested that I use Excel to format the report.  I tried this an it worked fine.  But why should I have to spend 5 minutes formatting a report each time I want to run it?

Lastly, Q&A reports could be previewed with a couple of clicks.  Previewing and producing reports in Sesame requires working through several menus.  This cannot be seen as an improvement.  Clearly Sesame's report design and production production is a giant step backwards.  I hope you will improve it in the future so it is at least as user friendly as Q&A was.

Again, thanks for the feedback.
  
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Hammer
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Re: Report Formatting Questions
Reply #5 - Feb 21st, 2004 at 10:10pm
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The HTML based reports both gave us some tremendous advantages and cost us some things that are easier to generate in non-HTML formats. Whether (as a whole) it's a step forwards or backwards depends on what you want out of reports.

As Q&Aers ourselves, we are aware of where we made trade-offs and will continue to work to find ways to add those abilities into Sesame's Report generator.

We do appreciate the feedback.
  

- Hammer
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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