Designing a fixed page for a visual report

Fixed pages of a visual report are single pages with unique elements that can be inserted in the visual report. Fixed pages can be used for example as cover pages, chapter beginning pages, special graphic pages, or a report closing page.

About this task

A visual report fixed page is divided into the following sections:
  • PageHeading section describes what appears at the top of the fixed page.
  • Fixed1 section describes what appears in the first fixed section of the page.
  • Fixed2 section describes what appears in the second fixed section of the page.
  • PageFooting section describes what appears at the bottom of the fixed page.

The process of designing each section of a fixed page is the same for each section. You can create as many fixed pages as your report requires. You specify where the pages will appear in the report using the property FixedPages that is available for each of the main page sections.

To create a fixed page for your visual report:

Procedure

  1. When you create a new visual report object, you automatically get a folder in the Project Explorer that can be used to design your first fixed page. You can however create as many fixed pages as is required by your report. To create additional fixed pages, right-click the Fixed Pages node from the Project Explorer view. Select Insert Fixed Page from the pop-up menu. The New Fixed Page wizard opens. Specify a unique name for this fixed page in the Fixed page name field. Click Finish. The Project Explorer view lists the new fixed page under the Fixed Pages node in the tree.
  2. Select which section you will be designing in one of the following ways:
    • From the Project Explorer tree, click the folder for the section of the fixed page that you want to design.
    • In the Design mode, the editor window is divided into multiple sections each labeled and associated with a section of the fixed page. Click the section that you want to design.
  3. In each section of the fixed page, you can insert design elements that identify what will be included in that section of the page. You choose the design elements from the Palette view. Select the objects that you want to insert. Then click the section of the fixed page where you want to place the object.
  4. The properties of each section of the fixed page and the properties of each object that you can insert in the report are displayed in the Properties view. You can modify the properties of each section of the fixed page and the properties of each object in the Properties view. The properties of some of the fixed page sections and objects can also be changed in the editor window.
  5. Specify where to insert the fixed page in the main report using the property FixedPages that is available for each of the main page sections. If you specify a FixedPages property in the:
    • Report header section: the fixed page will appear as the cover page of the report.
    • Page header section: the fixed page will appear before the highest level break.
    • Detail header section: the fixed page will appear before the detail level break.
    • Detail footer section: the fixed page will appear before the detail level break.
    • Page footer section: the fixed page will appear after the highest level break.
    • Report footer section: the fixed page will appear as the last page of the report.
  6. You can view your fixed page at any time during the design phase. Click the Preview tab in the editor window to display the report in preview mode. To return to the Canvas mode, select the Design tab.