BEx Report Designer

Use
The Report Designer is a tool you use to format and adapt the layout of your business data as a report (static or dynamic) and according to your needs. You can display this report on the Web. You can also convert the report into a PDF document to print or distribute it. For example, you can design the layout of a corporate balance sheet according to your needs and print it as a PDF document. The data binding for the report is provided by data providers (queries and query views). The Report Designer generates group levels according to the drilldown state of a query or query view. These group levels contain row patterns for the initial report view. The layout and formatting of the initial view can be adapted to suit customers' requirements.

Features
The Report Designer provides the following functions: You can use standard formatting functions such as font, bold and italics, background colors, frames, and so on. You can include texts, images, and charts in your reports. You can change the layout of a report. The following options are available: Insert rows and columns Change the height and width of rows and columns Position individual fields (such as characteristic values, key figures, filters, variables, user-specific texts) using drag and drop Merge Cells You can apply conditional formatting to overwrite the design for specific characteristic values, hierarchy nodes, and so on, specified by the row patterns. You can display BI hierarchies in your report. To be able to do this, the hierarchies must be on the row axis in the drilldown. A separate row pattern is created for each InfoObject in the hierarchy. There is also a row pattern for the leaves of the hierarchy. You can freely design the header and footer sections of your report, as well as the individual pages. You can create reports made up of multiple independent sections that are based on different data providers (queries or query views). These sections are arranged vertically in the report. See also Static and Dynamic Sections in Reports. You can define page breaks between report sections or for group level changes.

Functions of the Report Designer

Use
The BEx Report Designer is the reporting tool for the BI suite that is used to create reports that are optimized for presentation and printing.

Features
In addition to the menu bar and application toolbar, the BEx Report Designer consists of five screen areas:
Design area

The most important area of the Report Designer is the design area, where you design the layout of your report and format it whereby the report is schematically displayed. A report usually comprises the following elements: Page header Report body Page footer Page header and footer (if there are any) are repeated on every page of the report. The report body is comprised of static and/or dynamic sections. See also Static and Dynamic Sections in Reports. In the context menu of the design area, you can use various functions to design your report. Field catalog The field catalog lists all query fields and text elements for a query or query view that is being used, along with free texts created by the user. For more information, see Field Catalog. Report structure In the report structure, the report is displayed with the associated group levels and row patterns. For more information, see Report Structure. Format catalog The format catalog provides an overview of the formats used in the report. For more information, see Format Catalog. Properties In the properties area, you set the properties of the individual report elements (rows or cells). This allows you to determine the format and position of text fields, for example. For more information, see Properties

All the functions required for creating, formatting and designing your report are in the menu bar and toolbar of the Report Designer.