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Home > Guides > Reporting > Report Writer > Building Reports > Functionality

Functionality

Reports are written or modified in the Designer view. This user interface incorporates all of the screens involved in creating, modifying and previewing a report.

Tabs

Once in the design mode, a header with the following tabs will always be present at the top of the page. Quickly preview the report based on the changes made in each tab by pressing the Preview tab at any point.

Tab  Purpose 
Data Source Tells the tool where to go look for the data.  Every report MUST have a data source.
Fields Tells the tool which pieces of data should be listed for the details of the report.
Summary Tells the tool which pieces of data should be summarized on the report.
Chart Makes graphs (pie charts, trends, funnels) based on key items of interest.
Chart 2 Allows for a 2nd graphs to be included with the report.
Gauge Make a graph with start/end points and the data is placed on the graph.
Misc Stores the headers, footers, automatic running times, etc.
Style Provides a tool to make changes to the format of the report.
Filters Tells the tool which pieces of data to exclude from the report.

Menu Options

Below the tab are a set of menu options which will also appear on each page.

Option Purpose 
Report List Displays all the reports the user has access to based on security settings.  From this page, a user can open a report for editing or can create a new report or dashboard. 
New Will create a new report.
Save Will save the current report.
Save As Saves the current report with a new name or in a new category.

If a new category is added while saving the report, be sure to update the Group Security to ensure all the users who should have access to this report can see it in the future.  At the very least, it is recommended that the 'Master' group have access to the new cateogry.
Print Exports the report to a PDF format which can then be printed.
SQL Stores the headers, footers, automatic running times, etc.
  Exports the data out to Excel in a .csv file format.
  Exports the data out to Open Office.
  Exports the data out to Excel in a .xls file format.
  Exports the data out to Word in a .doc file format.
  Exports the data out in a .xml format.
  Exports the data out to Word in a .rft file format.
  Displays the iZenda scheme.
Results Limits the results to the number specified.

Other Icons

Icon Seen Where  Does What 
Next to the Category crop-down on the Report menu  Deletes the whole report category
Hover over the report name on the Report List screen Deletes the report 
 Hover over the reprot name on the Report List screen Takes the user directly to the design view of the report.



See also