Using Toolbar to change Report Elements

You can use the toolbar of the Report Designer to change certain properties of the selected elements. Make sure you select the elements that you want to change the properties of – see Selecting Elements.

The design of a report can be exported into a file with the .rdd extension. This file can then be imported into the same or different report design. This file can also be specified as the starting design when a new document template is being created

These buttons undo or redo changes of the design

These buttons zoom in or out of the design. The scale shows current zoom factor in percents

To change the font of the selected elements, select the required font in the font combo box in the toolbar. This applies only to text element (both static and dynamic) and conditional elements that define text elements in their conditions. If no elements are selected pressing this button will set the font to be used for new text elements.

To change the font size of the selected elements, select the required size from the font size combo box in the toolbar. You can also type the size directly into the size text box and press Enter. This feature applies only to text elements (static and dynamic) and conditional elements that define text elements in their conditions. If no elements are selected pressing this button will set the font size to be used for new text and tag elements.

The Fill color button sets background color of those elements that support this property - static and dynamic text, rectangles and circles. To change the color, click on the button, select the color and click “Apply”. Background color can only be changed if the element is not transparent. Transparency of the element can be changed by ticking the “Transparent” checkbox in the element properties window.

The Line Color button located next to the Fill Color button is used to apply color to borders around the elements that support this property - lines, rectangles, circles, dynamic and static text and images. To change the color select the element and click on the button in the toolbar. There you can pick the color. Click Apply to apply changes.

Certain report elements like static or dynamic text can be aligned relative to their bounding rectangle in the horizontal or vertical direction. There are altogether six icons on the toolbar that allow changing the alignment of the selected elements. Three icons align text in the horizontal direction (left, center, right) and three icons align text in the vertical direction (top, middle, bottom).

This button opens a popup menu where you can align several selected elements relative to the first selected element. Elements of any type can be aligned. The user has to select at least two elements for these commands to work (to select multiple shapes, click on the shape while depressing the CTRL button). It is important which element you select first, as other elements will be aligned relative to this element. The following commands are available:

1. Align Selected Left
   1. This command aligns selected elements to the left edge of the first element, so that the X coordinate of the origin of each selected element becomes equal to the X coordinate of the origin of the first element.
2. ALign Selected Right
   1. This command aligns selected elements to the right edge of the first element, so that the X coordinate of the corner of each selected element becomes equal to the X coordinate of the corner of the first element.
3. Align Selected Top
   1. This command aligns selected elements to the top edge of the first element, so that the Y coordinate of the origin of each selected element becomes equal to the Y coordinate of the origin of the first element.
4. Align Selected Bottom
   1. This command aligns selected elements to the bottom edge of the first element, so that the Y coordinate of the corner of each selected element becomes equal to the Y coordinate of the corner of the first element.
5. Horizontal Axis
   1. Each element changes its position so that their horizontal axis aligns with the horizontal axis of the first element Horizontal axis is an imaginary line that passes through the Y coordinate equal to Origin.Y + Height /2
6. Vertical Axis
   1. Each element changes its position so that their vertical axis aligns with the vertical axis of the first element (vertical axis is an imaginary line that passes through the X coordinate equal to Origin.X + Width /2

This button opens a popup menu where you can size several selected elements relative to the first selected element. Elements of any type can be sized. The user has to select at least two elements for these commands to work (to select multiple shapes, click on the shape while depressing the CTRL button). It is important which element you select first, as other elements will be sized relative to this element. The following commands are available:

1. Same Width
   1. The width of each element in the selection is changed to be equal to the width of the first element.
2. Same Height
   1. The height of each element in the selection is changed to be equal to the height of the first element.
3. Same Size
   1. Both width and height of each element in the selection is changed to be equal to the width and height of the first element.
4. Space Vertically
   1. Selected elements are re-positioned, so that distances between them in the Y direction become the same and equal to the current average distance.
5. - Space Horizontally
   1. Selected elements are re-positioned, so that distances between them in the X direction become the same and equal to the current average distance.

This button allows you to copy selected element's formatting in order to “paste” this formatting to other elements. Exactly one element should be selected for this button to work. What is copied to the clipboard depends on the type of the selected element - for graphical elements such as rectangles, circles and lines, only the fill and line colors are copied. For static or dynamic text, the formatting includes font family, font size, text color, font style (italic or normal), font weight (bold or normal), text decoration (normal, underline or strikethrough), horizontal and vertical text alignment.

This button allows you to “paste” formatting copied by the Copy Formatting button to the selected elements.

These buttons change the internal order of the elements, so that the selected element is either brought forward to become the first element in the order, or it is sent back to become the last element in the order. This is useful when a design has overlapping elements. If you click on an overlapping area, which element gets selected depends on the order of elements. Only one element must be selected for these buttons to work.

the Settings button brings up the Settings dialog where you can set some default properties of the Report Designer's behavior. This is explained here: