Chapter 11     

     The askSam Report Writer     

     askSam Concepts in this Chapter:

•     Creating a New Report

•     Running a Report

•     Editing a Report

•     Designing Report Layouts

•     Designing Labels

•     Troubleshooting Reports

What Is A Report?

askSam reports let you view information from multiple Documents in an organized and summarized manner. To create a report you need to decide:

·     What Documents you will select to include in the report.

·     How these Documents will be sorted and grouped.

·     What fields you'd like included in the report.

·     How the report will be laid out.

Once you know this information, creating, editing, and running a report is simple.

Reports are stored as Report Documents in your askSam file. A single askSam file may contain many different reports, each designed to serve a specific purpose.

Creating A New Report

Reports are created from the Report Manager Dialog Box. The Report Manager lets you create a new report, and switches to the new Report Document. You can then take the steps necessary to create the report:

·     Select Documents to include in the report

·     Sort and group the Documents

·     Define a layout for the report.

A report does not require all three of these elements. In fact, a report may consist of any one element, any combination of elements, or all three elements combined.

To Create A New Report:

1.     Choose TOOLS -> REPORTS (or press CTRL+R).

The Report Manger Dialog Box will appear.

2.     Enter a name for the report and choose the Create button.

A new Report Document will be created, and you switch to the Report Editor.

When you switch to the Report Editor, you'll notice the following changes on your screen:

·     The REPORT menu replaces the DOCUMENT menu.

·     The Search Line is replaced by the Report toolbar

·     The Field List is opened. A list of the fields in your file will be displayed.

Report Editor

3.     Choose REPORT -> SELECT DOCUMENTS to determine which Documents

will be included in the report. You can choose either:

COMMAND

DESCRIPTION

ALL

All Documents are output in the report.

SEARCH

Lets you select which Documents are output in the report by entering a search request.

STORED SEARCH

Lets you select which Documents are output in the report by choosing a stored search request. The report uses this stored request to select the Documents that are output.

NOTE: The REPORT menu command is only displayed when you switch from Data Documents to Report Documents. You can switch by creating a new report or by choosing VIEW -> DOCUMENT TYPE ->

REPORTS.

4.     Choose REPORT -> SORTING AND GROUPING to set how the Documents

in your report will be sorted and grouped.

The Sorting and Grouping Dialog Box will appear. (The chapter on Sorting and Outputting Lists describes the Sort Dialog Box and Grouping is described in detail later in this chapter.)

5.     Enter your Sort command and choose OK

You are now ready to define the layout for your report. You can insert fields, define which fields will be totaled and grouped, as well as define headers and footers. The complete features will be described later in this chapter. This example will show you how to insert a field.

6.     Select the field you want to place in your report from the Field List. Drag and drop the field name to the position where you want it in your report.

7.     Repeat step 6 until you have placed all the fields you want in your report.

8.     Choose FILE -> SAVE (or press CTRL+S) to save the report.

9.     To run your report, choose REPORT -> RUN.

The report will be run and output to a new Window. See "Running a Report" for details.

NOTES:

1.     There are various formats and report settings that affect the appearance of your report. (A complete description appears later in this chapter.)

2.     When a report outputs information from multiple Documents, you can define a separator to be inserted between the information from those Documents. (See Output Separator later in this chapter.)

3.     After you place a field in a report, you can use the mouse to drag and drop the field in a new position.

Running A Report

Once you have defined a report, you can run it at any time.

To Run A Report:

1.     Choose TOOLS -> REPORTS (or press CTRL+R).

2.     Choose the name of the report you want to run.

3.     Choose the RUN button.

The report you selected is run and one of three things will happen:

If you defined a layout for the report

The Report Output window will open and the report will be displayed in this window. If you double click on any line in the report, you return to the Document containing the information in that line. By choosing the “Switch Back to Original File” button (or pressing CTRL+TAB), you can move between the report and your askSam file. You can also Print, Edit, and Save the contents of the report.

If you created a report with a Search or Sort request but without a layout

The Search Results Window will open at the bottom of the screen. The Documents selected by the report are listed in the Search Results Window. The first selected Document will be displayed in the top portion of your screen.

If askSam does not find any Documents that meet your search criteria

A Message Box will appear informing you that no matches were found. If this happens, check your selection criteria.

NOTE:

1.     You can also set a Hypertext Link to Run a Report. See the chapter on Organizing Information with Hypertext.

Report Links

When a report is output to a window, the information in the report remains linked to the information in your file. You can double click on any line in the report, and you return to the Document containing the information you clicked on. Your report remains open in another window. By pressing CTRL+TAB you can move between your file and the report. This is a convenient way to generate an overview of the information in your database and jump back to specific Documents.