Operation Manual

1) Select Columnar, three columns for the Layout of data.
2) Layout of headers and footers has no possible selections.
3) Select Landscape as the Orientation for the page layout.
4) Click Next.
Figure 257: Report Builder template determined by the Report Wizard
Step 6: Create report
1) Label the report: Vacation Expenses.
2) Select Dynamic report.
3) Click Finish.
Figure 258: Report without modifications
The report has been created, but it needs some editing. The date could be formatted better, and all
the numbers need to be formatted as currency. It could use a heading that includes its name, its
author, and the date it was prepared. If the report had more than one page, the page numbers
could be put in a footer of each page, perhaps including the total number of pages.
Report Builder: another way to create reports
When we used the Report Wizard, we created a template in Report Builder for our report. If we edit
our report, we open Report Builder with this template. By modifying the template, we also modify
the report. For example, we can change the Date field’s format, and it will change the format of all
the dates contained in that field in the above report. Similarly, we can change the field formatting of
any of the other fields and change the format everywhere that field appears in the report.
Report Builder can also create reports by itself. To do this you click Create Report in design
View. For instructions on how to use the Report Builder, see Chapter 4 of the Base Guide, Data
Output. We will discuss it in detail there.
For detailed instructions on using Report Builder, see Dmitri Popov’s Sun Report Builder
Guidebook, available in PDF (search for “Sun Report Builder Guidebook”) and printed versions
from Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/writertools
Chapter 8 Getting Started with Base | 257