The Template Editor is a work area in which you can define objects and formatting properties for your templates. It is similar to the Layout Model view of the Report Editor. You can create, delete, and modify objects (for example, page numbers, text, and graphics) in the margin area. You cannot create and delete objects in the body area, but you can modify the properties of body objects in the Property Inspector.
To display the Template Editor:
When creating a new template:
Choose FileNew
Template.
In the Object Navigator, click the Templates node, then click
in the toolbar.
When displaying an existing template:
From the Windows menu, choose a window with the Template Editor Layout view in it.
In the Object Navigator, double-click the Layout Model node icon for a template.
Objects in the body are only provided as an example of how visual attributes will be applied to the objects in a report. Objects in the margin area will appear in the report as they do in the template. To view or change an object's settings, display the Property Inspector.
The painting region is the area in which you can modify objects while viewing their graphical representations on the screen. There are two regions in the Template Editor:
The formatting characteristics (for example, font and color) of objects in the body area of a template are inherited by the objects in the body area of any report to which you apply the template. Objects in the body area of a template are placeholders for the types of objects that would appear in a report layout of that style.
Objects in the margin area of a template will be imported into the margin area of any report to which you apply the template. You can define text, graphics, and fields whose source is a system parameter (for example, Current Date or Page Number) in the margin.
To navigate between report regions, click the corresponding icon in the toolbar.
To toggle the body area between views of the different report styles, use the Report Styles list at the top of the Template Editor.
Rulers are located around the left and top edges of the painting region.
Rulers are initially shown in the Tempalte Editor's Paper Layout view.
To hide rulers, choose ViewRulers and deselect
the Rulers menu option.
When you change a template's Unit of Measurement property (double-click the template icon in the Object Navigator), the ruler units are updated to reflect the Unit of Measurement. When you set Design in Character Units to Yes, the ruler units are changed to character cells.
Markers move along both of the rulers to track your cursor location in the painting region. The rulers scroll along with the painting region. Likewise, when you magnify part of the painting region, the rulers are updated to reflect the magnification.
Ruler guides provide you with a point of reference for creating and modifying
objects. To create a ruler guide, click one of the rulers and drag into the
painting region. To show ruler guides, choose ViewRuler Guides.
Inside the painting region is a grid to help you position objects in the painting
region. The grid is drawn in relationship to the rulers. In the Ruler
Settings dialog box, you specify the interval at which grid lines appear per
unit on the ruler. For example, if you have a Unit of inches and a Grid
Spacing of 0.5, there will be one grid line per half-inch on the ruler.
Choose ViewGrid
to display the grid.
In the Paper Layout view, the status bar displays the following information:
absolute mouse position (in pixels, inches, or centimeters)
mouse drag distance (in pixels, inches, or centimeters)
rotation angles
magnification level
anchor percentages
When you are working in the Template Editor, you can define default attributes for all report styles, or override attributes for a selected report style.
When creating a template, modify the default attributes to get the look and feel right for most cases. Then modify override attributes to tweak the changes for specific report styles.
Use the Object Navigator for modifying the template’s report properties, system parameters, user parameters, program units, attached libraries, and report triggers.
When creating an object in the margin area, you should assign it a name that you are certain will be unique in any report to which the template is applied. For example, if you were to create a boilerplate object named B_1 in a template, this name could easily clash with the name of an existing boilerplate object in a report when you apply the template to a report. To avoid this problem, append something to the template object name to ensure it is unique (for example, $MY_TEMPLATE_BPLATE1).
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