Using Guidelines

The JADE Report Writer Designer application enables you to create vertical and horizontal guidelines to assist in positioning, moving, and resizing fields. Guidelines provide a visual indication of fields linked to them.

You can move existing guidelines or you can delete guidelines by dragging guidelines that you want to delete out of the ruler. When you move a guideline, all attached controls are moved and resized.

When using guidelines:

• Move a field or control to snap (attach) it to the grid; moving a guideline to a control does not attach it.

• You cannot attach lines and boxes to guidelines, but text and pictures only.

• Moving an attached control away from the guideline does not move the guideline but breaks the attachment of the control to the guideline.

• Moving a guideline breaks the attachment to other guidelines only when the moving of the control takes it away from other guidelines.

• Guidelines are not saved with the report.

• You cannot shrink a section size less than lowest (largest) horizontal guideline. Horizontal guidelines can be moved only within their section, and not between sections.

• When you select the Snap to Grid command from the View menu, guidelines also snap to the grid when moved.

• You cannot add guidelines to attached template frames within reports.

To create a guideline

• Click on the horizontal or vertical ruler with the left mouse button.

A gray guideline is then displayed on the report. To reposition the guideline, move the triangular slider, shown in the following image, along the ruler.

To delete a guideline

• Drag the triangular slider off the ruler, upwards for a vertical guideline or to the left for a horizontal ruler.

To align a field to a guideline

• Move the field close to the guideline.

The guideline then becomes attached, indicated by the red sizing handles shown in the following image, so that the attached field moves when you move the guideline.

To move fields by moving a guideline

• Drag the triangular slider along the ruler to the new position.

All fields attached to the guideline, indicated by the red sizing handles, move with it.

To resize fields by moving a guideline

• When fields are sandwiched between two guidelines, moving one of the guidelines causes the attached controls to be resized so that they remain attached to both guidelines.