Part III

Building Reports with Special Formatting

The chapters in this Part provide steps to build reports that include special formatting. The example reports show you how to wrap text data, add headers and footers, format headers with database values that change at runtime, renumber pages, include intermixed fields, suppress labels, use conditional text, and add text, color, and graphics to your report.

This Part contains the following chapters:

• Chapter 15, "Building a Wrapped Field Report"

A wrapped field report wraps the data on word boundaries if it is too long to fit in one line. The report contains a field that is of a fixed horizontal width but can expand vertically if the contents of the break field are longer than the specified width. The contents of the fields are not truncated.

• Chapter 16, "Building a Header and Footer Report"

A header and footer report contains boilerplate or fields in the header or footer section. This report has a page header printed in the upper margin area of every page of the report and a footer printed at the end.

• Chapter 17, "Building a Header with Database Values Report"

A header with database values report can include dynamic values in the page header of the report. For example, you can print both the first and last department numbers found on each page.

• Chapter 18, "Building a Report with Graphics, Text, and Color"

A report with graphics, text, and color enables you to modify the look of your report. You can enhance a report by adding an image to the margin, adding a title or a border, or applying different fonts and text styles.

• Chapter 19, "Building a Report that Renumbers Pages by Repeating Frame"

A report that renumbers pages by repeating frame displays page numbers using the format "Page X of Y Pages". The first number (X) corresponds to the current page of each parent record. The second number (Y) corresponds to the total number of pages of each parent record.

• Chapter 20, "Building an Intermixed Fields Report"

An intermixed fields report includes the group field between its related fields. This is in contrast to a group report. Normally in the group report, the break field appears to the left of its related fields in the group left report or above in the group above report.

• Chapter 21, "Building a Report that Suppresses Labels"

A report that suppresses labels is a master/detail report that fetches a master record with no associated details. Therefore, the report suppresses the detail information for a single record but allows the other master/detail records to display.

• Chapter 22, "Building a Conditional Form Letter Report"

A conditional form letter report generates two different form letters from one report. Since the two letters share common features, it is more convenient to create a base form letter and then apply conditions to certain parts. The conditions will determine whether the part should display for the current record.

• Chapter 23, "Building a Report with Conditional Highlighting"

Conditional highlighting draws attention to specific data in a report by using visual formatting. You can use Reports Builder or the PL/SQL Editor to create a format trigger that changes the appearance of retrieved data depending on factors you define. For example, you can display amounts greater than 1000 in red.

• Chapter 24, "Building a Report with Dynamic Graphics"

A report with dynamic graphics contains drawings and images that are "dynamic." Any changes that you make to the graphics will be reflected in your report output at runtime.