Summary
Information about the Report Designer Properties pane.
Resolution
Access the Properties window
You can use the Properties pane in Report Designer to easily change the properties of a selected object, or the document as a whole.
The Properties pane should appear automatically in Report Designer. If it doesn't appear, click View, then click Properties.
The Properties window
The options that appear in the properties window depends on if you have an object selected or not. With nothing selected, the properties refer to the document as a whole. If you have an object selected, the properties refer to the object.
▼ View Properties when no object is selected
| Template | Add or remove a template to the document. |
|---|---|
| Print Template | Choose if you would like the template to print alongside the document. |
| Watermark | Add or remove a watermark. |
| Delimiter | Specify the delimiter used to separate fields when exporting as a CSV. |
| Text Qualifier | Specify the text that will appear either side of a field when exported as a CSV. |
| Numeric Qualifier | Specify if values are written using their fixed lengths, which are specified in the objects properties. |
| Fixed Length | Specify if the z-order of the fields are reordered when exported. |
| Auto arrange Z-Order | Specifies if the Z-Order of the elements are reordered in the CSV file. If true, the order will alphabetic, top to bottom of left to right. If false, the order will match the report. |
| Include Sections | Select which sections start a new row in the exported CSV file. |
| Generate Header Rows | Specifies if a header row should be generated in the CSV output. |
| Sorts | You can sort the data in your report by a particular variable, or by using an expression |
| Aggregation | Data aggregation allows you to combine multiple data records before running the report (so you can combine data without using groups). |
| Filter Expression | Use this to set the filter to apply to the report. |
| Criteria | Set the criteria to apply to the report. |
| Include records with no transactions | By default, Report Designer only reports on records that have transactions associated with them. If you want to include records without any transactions, set the Include records with no transactions property to True. |
| Report tags | You can use report tags to help people find your reports more easily in your software. A report tag is a text label that you can add to your report, and use as a category to group related reports. |
| Description | You can enter a description for the report. |
| Name | You can edit the report name here. |
| Email options | Opens the Email Settings window. |
| Excel Export Options | Choose which sections of the document are exported to Excel. |
| Print Scaling | You can set the print scaling to apply to the report. To do this, open Print Scaling, then set the Height and Width values as a percentage (%). |
| Save Printer Settings | To save the current printer settings with the report, set this property to True. Set this property to False if you don't want to save the printer settings with the report. When the report is printed, it will automatically use the current default printer. |
| Multi-printer Settings | You can set up multiple printer options for a report. |
| Security Options | You can secure the document. For example apply a password. |
| XML Style Sheet | You can use a XSLT style sheet to format (or transform) reports that you export in XML format. |
▼ View Properties when an object is selected
| Expression | An expression tells Report Designer what information to include in a report. |
|---|---|
| Function | Use this to apply numeric functions such as average, count and sum. |
| Sign | Use this to control the sign of positive and negative numbers, or how credit and debit values are displayed. |
| Word Wrap | Use Word Wrap to set whether information will wrap onto the next line when it reaches the edge. |
| Auto Grow | Allows the space allocated to the information to expand or decrease so that it fits on the report. |
| Style | Apply a defined style to information in your report. |
| Conditional Formatting | Conditional formatting is used to draw attention to, or ignore, information when a condition is met. |
| Background | Controls the style and colour of the background behind the information. |
| Border | Controls the style of the border used for boxes, text boxes, barcodes and images. |
| Text Style | Set the appearance for text; such as font, size, colour, bold, underline, and alignment. |
| Formatting | Use Formatting to set date and time formats, numeric properties and fill space formats that are useful when dealing with cheques. |
| Print on First Copy Only | When printing more than one copy of the document, this option controls whether the information is printed on the first copy only or on all copies. |
| Suppress Printing | Controls whether the information is printed or not: |
| Apply Sign After Group | Controls how the total for a group is displayed when it uses the credit or debit sign. |
| Evaluate Section | Use this to specify what to count when calculating the value of an expression. This is important for aggregate functions such as Sum and Count, as they increase each time the section is generated in the report. |
| Reset Section | Use this to restart calculating values for a section; otherwise the cumulative value for one section is passed to the next. |
| Suppress Duplicate Section | Excludes duplicate values from your report on a section by section basis. |
| Display Names Values | Relevant when dealing with coded variables. Coded variables use a value (0, 1, 2) to represent a status; such as on hold, true or false. Rather than displaying a value, you can display a meaningful description in your report. |
| Is Cumulative | This property is used with functions. If set to Yes, the value is displayed as a running total; if set to No, the value will be the total for the entire group. |
| Drill Down | Used to drill down to a further report or web page when previewing the report or viewing it as a PDF file. See Drill down reports. |
| Visible | Hides information from the report; it will not appear in Designer or Preview modes, or when printing the report. |
| Locked | Fixes information on a report to stop it from being moved. This is useful when you use pre-printed stationery, as it ensures the information is in the right position when it is printed. |
| Output Length | The maximum length of the field when it is exported to CSV format. This is useful if you intend to import the CSV file in another application, and the field must be constrained to a certain length. |
| Apply Output Length To Header | When enabled, this setting applies the output length to the CSV header field. |
| Name | You can set a name of to the object for use in expressions. |
| Location | Controls the position of information on your report. |
| Dimension | Controls the size of the information on the report. Click + to display the height and width properties, then enter the size into the boxes. |
| Linked position | Link the position of this element to another element in the report, so it will move relative to the other element. You can link the position to any other element, a section or the report margins. |
| Linked Position Anchor | You can set a linked element's position to be relative to one corner of the other element; e.g. top left or bottom right. |
| Linked Dimension | Link the size of this element to another element in the report, so it will be resized relative to the other element. You can link the dimension to any other element. |
| Linked Dimension Anchor | If you have set a Linked Dimension, you can choose to link the width and/or height of the elements. |
You might also find out group properties and formatting guide.
Can't find the report you're looking for?
Our reporting team offer a bespoke report design service for Sage 50 Accounts and Payroll. Book a consultation today! Find out more >
Africa
Asia
Australia
Canada
France
Ireland
Kenya
Nigeria
Portugal
South Africa
Spain
United Arab Emirates
United States
Germany