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Example of column formatting options

In this example, Phyllis is creating a report for a dynamic six-month forecast. She wants the word Actual to be printed over the columns that contain actual data, and the word Budget to be printed over the columns that contain budget forecasts. Each month that the report is run, there is one more actual column and one less budget column. Phyllis can modify the column definition manually every time that the report is generated to adjust the headers, but she decides to save time and to create conditional spanning headers that will automatically create headers over the appropriate columns every time that the report is run.

Phyllis opens Report Designer, clicks Column Definition in the navigation pane, and opens the column definition for the report. She enters the following information. The Base period in the report definition is 4.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

Header 1

Actual

Budget

Header 2

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

@CalMonthLong

Header 3

Column Type

DESC

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

FD

Book Code/Attribute

ACTUAL

BUDGET2012

ACTUAL

BUDGET2012

ACTUAL

BUDGET2012

ACTUAL

BUDGET2012

ACTUAL

BUDGET2012

ACTUAL

BUDGET2012

Fiscal Year

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

BASE

Period

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

Periods Covered

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

PERIODIC

Column Width

30

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

Print Control

P<=B

P>B

P<=B

P>B

P<=B

P>B

P<=B

P>B

P<=B

P>B

P<=B

P>B

Phyllis double-clicks a column header cell to open the Column Header dialog box, where she enters the following information.

Field

Phyllis enters

Column header text

Actual

Insert AutoText

No selection made

Format options

Box

Justification

No selection made

Spread from

B

Spread to

BASE

Budget header

BASE+1 to end column

Phyllis clicks OK.

She then double-clicks the column header cell on column C to open the Column Header dialog box, where she enters the following information.

Field

Phyllis enters

Column header text

Budget

Insert AutoText

No selection made

Format options

Box

Justification

No selection made

Spread from

C

Spread to

BASE+2

Now every time that this report is generated, there will be columns entitled Actual and Budget with adjustments made each month to the number of columns.

See Also

Format columns