Sage 200 Report Designer - Glossary of Terms

This article provides a brief explanation of the Sage Report Designer terms you may encounter when speaking to our support technicians, reading articles, or using Sage Report Designer.

Active Complete

You can use this option to automatically create titles and totals for any variables or expressions added to a report, layout, letter or label. For further information about Active Complete, please refer to article 200427112321957.

Auto Grow

This feature is used to allow an object to grow beyond its current dimensions to accommodate all of the information it contains. For further information about using Auto Grow please refer to article 200427112338460.

Conditional Formatting

Using this option you can specify format changes to items on your document if they meet certain conditions, for example, you can set a customer report to print a value in red if it exceeds a specified amount. For further information about Conditional Formatting, please refer to article 200427112305887.

Criteria

Criteria determines the data included on your document and how you choose from certain information at the time of running your report or layout, for example, from a choice of customers when running a report. For further information about the criteria options, please refer to article 200427112303482.

Dynamic help

In Sage 200 2013 and above, the Dynamic help feature takes you through common processes step by step. For example, adding text, variables or images.

Email Settings

In Sage Report Designer you can now output emails to MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface), Microsoft Outlook and via SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). For further information about email settings, please refer to article 200427112305925.

Export

You can now export report data directly from Sage Report Designer. When you export data it can be saved to be used at a later date or sent to customers. For further information about exporting please refer to article 200427112330891.

Expression

Using can use expressions to calculate different variables or calculations. They can also be used to add together different text fields., for example, you may want to work out the discounted unit price on an invoice or you would like to merge the account reference and name of a customer into one field. For further information about expressions, please refer to article 200427112303466.

Expression Editor

Sage Report Designer features the Expression Editor which is used to create filters, criteria, expressions, groups, conditional formatting and variables. For further information about any of these features please refer to the relevant section of this article.

Expression Snippets Manager

With the Expression Snippets Manager you can group and add snippets to the Sage Report Designer for use in future report designs. For further information about the Expression Snippets Manager please refer to article 200427112338542.

File Types

Using Report Designer you can save or export reports as a number of different file types. These types are:-

BMP - A graphical format used within Windows. For example, this file output could be used to export a report from Sage 200 and add it to a presentation.

CSV (comma separated) - A format where each field is separated by commas. This is commonly used for exporting information to be imported into other programs.

CSV (Length Delimited) - A format where the character separating each field can be specified. This is commonly used for exporting information to be imported into other programs.

DataReport - A format used exclusively within Sage Report Designer. DataReport files are reports which have been run and the information saved for future reference.

PDF - This is a universal file format that preserves the fonts, images and layout of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. PDF files can be viewed and printed by anyone with free Adobe Acrobat Reader software.

TXT (ANSI) - Plain text format using an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) character set. This is mainly used for Windows programs.

TXT (OEM) - Plain text format using a OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture) character set. This is mainly used for DOS programs.

Report - A format used exclusively within Sage Report Designer. Report files are the format that all the designs for reports, layouts, letters and labels are saved in.

RTF - RTF (Rich Text Format) is a file format standardised by Microsoft to create formatted text files. Unlike a basic text file an RTF file can include information such as text style, size, and colour.

XLS - This format is used within Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 and allows reports to be output so that they can be viewed within Microsoft Excel.

XLSX - Sage Accounts 2011 and above - This format is used within Microsoft Excel 2007 and above and allows reports to be output so that they can be viewed within Microsoft Excel 2007 and above.

XML - XML is the abbreviation for Extensible Markup Language and designates a universal data format for publishing and exchanging structured documents.

For further information about saving documents in these formats please refer to article 200427112338896.

Filter

With a filter you can specify the data you want to appear on your document or the data you want to exclude from your document, for example, you may want to add a filter to a customer report to look at invoices over a certain amount. For further information about adding filters, please refer to article 200427112302665.

Groups

Grouping a document keeps items together. For example, you can add a group using the variable SLCustomerAccounts.CustomerAccountNumber so that you can see a separate set of transactions. For further information about groups, please refer to article 200427112305308.

Grouping

In Sage Report Designer you now have the option to group objects together on the design page, so that if you move one object, all other objects in the group also move. For example, you may want to group your customers address details on the invoice layout. For further information about grouping please refer to article 200427112321973.

Images

This option enables you to make your report more personal and professional by adding a image or logo. For further information about adding Images, please refer to article 200427112325349.

Join Editor

You can use this feature to link different tables within a report, including relevant information on your report from other areas of Sage 200. For further information about groups, please refer to article 200427112305909.

Objects

Objects are variables, images, lines, boxes, text boxes or expressions on your report design.

Ordering

In Sage Report Designer you can use Ordering to change the order in which objects appear on the page. For example, if you want a text field to print over the top of an image you can do this by sending the image to the back. To do this, select the objects you want to order > Format > choose Order > choose the required option .Alternately in Sage 200 2013 or above you can right click and choose order.

Printer offsets

Most printers print information in a slightly different position on a document. This is because every printer has its own driver software which can interpret information slightly differently. This can mean that printed information appears out of line. Printer Offsets allow you to compensate for slight print alignment problems by moving the entire print up, down, left or right. This is only relevant to dot matrix printers. For further information about Printer Offsets, please refer to article 200427112338841.

Properties
pane

The positions and details of every object on a document are held within the Properties pane. For further information about the Properties pane, please refer to the following articles:

200427112322795 - Report Designer - Numeric Formatting
200427112322844 - Report Designer - How to amend date or time object properties
200427112338927 - Report Designer - How to amend size and position properties of an object
200427112337493 - Report Designer - Drill Downs

Report Explorer

The Report Explorer pane contains all of the different sections on the report, and can be expanded to list all objects on the report.

Reports tree view

This feature makes it easier to find reports, for example, all customer reports are under the sales tree. To view reports held within a folder on the reports tree view, click the plus sign to the left of the folder.

Sections

All documents are made up of various sections. Each section has a different purpose on a document. For further information about sections, please refer to article 200427112338041.

Snippet

A snippet is part of an expression which has been saved so that it can be added to other reports. For further information about snippets, please refer to article 200427112338542.

Sorts

This determines how the information appears on your document, for example, in numerical order by transaction number or alphabetical order by customer name. For further information about sorts, please refer to article 200427112322036.

Styles

A style is used to apply the same font attributes to a number of variables or text fields, for example, all titles on a report might fall under the style banner 'Title', as they all share common font attributes, such as font size 8, are all underlined and in bold. For further information about styles, please refer to article 200427112319916.

Table

A table contains variables relating to different areas of Sage Accounts, for example, the Sales Ledger table contains all variables that pick up customer details such as name and telephone numbers.

Template

A template can help you to place your data into boxes on your pre-printed stationery by giving an example when previewing the layout of how the document will appear on standard Sage stationery. They are available in either A4 or Letter paper size. For further information about templates and lining up your stationery, please refer to article 200427112339012.

Text

A field of information or a heading which remains fixed on a document. Text can be added, deleted or amended in Sage Report Designer. For further information about adding or removing text, please refer to article 200427112321989.

Toolbox

The toolbox pane and menu contain features which allow you to the change the appearance of the design, for example, add a text box, line or box. For information about adding lines or boxes, please refer to article 200427112322759.

Totals

You can add up numeric fields on your document to provide you with a total. For further information about how to add a total to a report, please refer to article 200427112337941.

Variables

These are added to a document to extract information from Sage 200. For example, the NAME variable from the SLCustomerAccounts table displays the various customer names from the customer record. For further information about adding or removing variables, please refer to article 200427112321989.

Variables pane

The variables pane contains tables, variables and any snippets that have been saved.

Tables appear as items with a plus symbol next to them to indicate that they can be expanded. To view the variables contained within a table, click on the plus sign.

Snippets appear at the bottom of this list. To view a snippet, click on the plus sign to expand the Snippets folder.

Watermark

In Sage 200 2013 and above, you can add text or an image to print on each page of your report as a watermark.For further information about how to add a watermark to a report, please refer to article 200427112338426.

Word Wrap

This option ensures that a field which would normally be cut off if the variable is not wide enough, instead wraps the text and takes it onto the next line. For further information about how to enable text wrapping, please refer to article 200427112338460 .

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Sage 200 Services

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