Creating Templates

Create standard report frames and content by using templates. When you start a new template, you are provided with the same blank design layout that is provided when you start a new report. It contains the standard sections: report header, page header, detail, page footer, and report footer.

Move fields to the template sections in exactly the same way that you move fields to the report frames, except that you have no access to the database fields.

Templates enable you to create standard report frames that you can use for many or all of the reports in your organization. Specific database fields are therefore not relevant to templates.

When you attach a template to a report, the template frames are added to the report frames, as shown in the following image

If you do not want all of the default template sections printed, make the sections that you do not want printed invisible by unchecking the Visible in the Report check box in the Section Properties dialog.

In the following example, a report header showing the company letterhead as a standard header is printed.

In this example, a standard template is attached that provides the Erewhon letterhead graphic. The sample report at the top is the same report before the template (with its graphical header section) is applied. All other template sections in this example have been made invisible.

The steps that are required to create a template are listed in the following table.

Step	For more details, see…
Start a New Template	"Starting a Template", earlier in this chapter.
Create template detail	The procedure described in "Inserting Report Fields", earlier in this chapter, except that you cannot insert database script or summary fields.
Make unwanted sections invisible	"Visible Command" under "Setting the Section Properties", earlier in this chapter.

When you have created a template, use the Attach Template command from the Report menu to apply it to your report. For details, see "Attach Template" under "Report Menu", later in this chapter.

If you want to update the template, open the template by using the Open Template command from the File menu. For details, see "Opening a Template", earlier in this chapter.