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Designing the Group Header

The first section of the report layout you are going to design is the group header or swapped header. Because you defined the Order–num group to start a new page, the group header, 2GH–Order–num, contains the information that appears on the first page of every invoice.

To produce the information shown on the first page of the invoice in Figure 9–8, you must perform these tasks:

  1. Insert the fields.
  2. Draw and modify a rectangle.
  3. Format the fields.
  4. Specify conditional printing for a band line.
Inserting the Fields

The first task in designing the group header is to insert the database, calculated, and text fields on the layout.

After you complete these steps, the layout should look like the one in Figure 9–3.

Figure 9–3: Layout with Group Header Fields

Drawing and Modifying a Rectangle

When you inserted the database fields in the previous section, you inserted the field labels for the order information on the twelfth 2GH–Order–num band line. To highlight these labels, surround them with a rectangle.

Follow these steps to create and properly format the rectangle:

  1. Create a rectangle starting at the left margin and ending at the 7.5-inch mark (right margin) on the twelfth 2GH–Order–num band line. The finished rectangle should encase the text fields on the band line.
  2. Specify Silver as the rectangle background color.
  3. Create a vertical line that is the height of the rectangle at the 1-inch mark.
  4. Copy the line five times, then place one line at each of the inch marks, starting with the 1-inch mark and ending at the 6-inch mark within the rectangle.
  5. For example, move the one vertical line to the 1-inch mark, then another line at the 3-inch mark, etc. These lines are dividers that create column header areas within the rectangle.

    Make sure that all the vertical lines connect with the rectangle borders.

Figure 9–4 shows the layout with the formatted rectangle.

Figure 9–4: Layout with Shaded Rectangle

Formatting the Fields

When you formatted the rectangle, you placed the divider lines so that they created 1-inch areas within the rectangle. In this section you will center the column labels within these sections. You will also make all the other field labels in the group header bold instead of underlined.

Follow these steps to format the text fields:

  1. Change the point size of all the column labels on the twelfth 2GH–Order–Num band line from 12-point Arial to 10-point Arial.
  2. Center each column label within its area of the shaded rectangle by moving it to the appropriate location.
  3. Move the following fields to the location specified in this table. Position the left edge of the field at the specified ruler mark:
  4. Field
    Band Line
    Ruler Mark
    Customer–Num
    Sixth 2GH–Order–num
    1-inch
    Order–Date
    Ninth 2GH–Order–num
    1-inch
    Ship–Date (text field)
    Tenth 2GH–Order–num
    Left margin
    Ship–Date
    Tenth 2GH–Order–num
    1-inch
    Promise–Date
    Tenth 2GH–Order–num
    6.5-inch

  5. Change the style for all of the field labels in the group header from underlined to bold.

After you format the fields, the layout should look like the one in Figure 9–5.

Figure 9–5: Layout with Formatted Group Header Fields

Specifying Conditional Printing for a Band Line

In "Commission Report," you learned how to conditionally print a band line based on the value in a field. For this report, you are going to perform the same task for the seventh 2GH–Order–num band line.

Follow these steps to conditionally print the band line:

  1. Select the seventh 2GH–Order–num band line.
  2. Choose Properties Band Line Properties. The Band Line Properties dialog box appears.
  3. Activate the Enable Conditional Printing toggle box.
  4. Select the Customer.Address2 field from the drop-down list. By default, the Print When Field Has Contents radio button is activated.
  5. Choose OK to return to the report layout.

You are now finished designing the group header. Figure 9–6 shows the report layout with the properly designed group header.

Figure 9–6: Layout with Completed Group Header


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