The Main Editing Window

Contents Adding Data Fields Overview

This is the designers editing frame. This screen appears after you open a template set and create/edit a report.

1. The Toolbar Use the buttons on the toolbar to apply actions to the current page or to the whole repository. ToolbarReference
2. The Formatting Bar. Use the formatting bar to change the style of the report. The format bar is used for quick local changes to a cell. The complete set of formatting options is available in the property sheet (see below).FormattingReference
3. The Content Explorer. The templates and styles are saved in a template file (*.pdg) which also called a repository. The content explorer shows the items of the template file and the schema. Right clicking on the elements in the explorer pops up the context menu for each item. Use the menu items to act on the elements.

   The explorer has several tabs to switch between the components of the repository.

   • The Templates tab of the explorer lists the templates contained in your file. One file can contain many templates.
   • The Data tab shows the entry points into the database. There are different types of entry points depending on your database. They can be the set of all objects of one class or they can be special named objects. You need an entry point to create a report. The data in a report comes from accessing the entry point of the report.
   • The Styles tab. It lists the named styles in the repository. Named styles are a convenient way of changing the look of several reports at once and to make sure that all reports conform to the corporate style. Pdgen uses cascading styles to simplify changing styles to automatically assign default styles to items.
   • The Fields tab lists all data fields, that you can place in the template. Drag a field from the list to a cell in the page to place it in your report. For details see the Fields Tree Reference
4. The Property Sheet for the edited elements. The property sheets lists all properties of an element that can be edited. Properties relate to styles or to the specific properties of a view, report, frame or table. When the property sheet is closed, use the splitter bar to show it.
For details see the Property Sheet Reference
5. The Work Area. The work area displays the current template. You can drag fields and styles onto the template sheet, select and modify items or drag them around.

Note:Pdgen uses a spreadsheet like approach to layout the elements on a page. As a consequence elements are not placed anywhere on a page but rather into cells. This allows Pdgen to manage the cells and to adjust the layout automatically whenever something changes. This feature is a great time saver.

Note:If you have been using relational databases or relational report writers you may wonder why Pdgen uses different names for familiar notions like rows and tables. In many cases, a root is the same as a table and a class is the same as a row definition and an object is the same as a row. However roots, classes, and objects are more powerful because they are more flexible than their relational counterparts. So here is a short account of the differences, that you should be aware of.

Related Topics:

• Opening/Saving a Template Set.
• Setting up a Java data connection.
• Report Tutorial.
• Details of the Editor Gui
• Creating a data view..
• Organizing the repository.

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Adding Data Fields