Customize the appearance of a new report template in the wizard

You can add text and images to customize the appearance of your new template in the Wizard.

Templates in the Designer Wizard include preview images, a label and description, and are organized into different categories by filters. When you have created a new template and added it to the design wizard, you can customize the appearance of your new template in the wizard.

Template label, description, and filters

Templates are categorized by filters. You can view the list of filters by going to File > New..., selecting Report from Template, and clicking on the Filters drop-down list.
Note: The template will only appear in the Report from Template list if the report template directory has been set. See Set the report template directory.
Each template has a label, a description, and is filtered by the tags that are included in the associated properties file (.4rt.prop). For more information about the list of existing filters, see Template filters.

Figure: Report from Template wizard: A = Filters, B = Label, C = Description


Screen shot of New Template wizard highlighting the location of the filters, labels, and descriptions of templates.
See the following example of the syntax in the PULSEDIN5008Template.4rt.prop:
tags: Correspondence, Invoice, Batcheable, Two Groups, PULSE Theme
label:DIN 5008 Invoice (PULSE)
description: General: Invoice following the placement guidelines of the German norm DIN 5008\nPaper Format: A4\nStyle: PULSE\nRemarks:\n - The measurements can be included in the unrolled report as an editing aid\n - The report is batcheable by the outer group

Template images

In the Report From Template page in the Designer Wizard, each template has a thumbnail image in the list and a large version of the same image displayed on the right of the page. This image is a screen capture of the report and is stored in the $ProjectDir/gre/templates directory as <TEMPLATENAME>.4rt.png.

When you have selected a template in the Designer Wizard and the New Report from Template Wizard opens, images are displayed in each of the three pages; the Schema Association page, the Add Fields page, and the Variables page, that are designed to call-out the specific section of the report that is relevant to the current selection in the form.

The sample template images are stored in the $ProjectDir/gre/templates/<TEMPLATENAME> directories and adhere to the following naming conventions:

  • Schema association images: <PLACEHOLDERNAME>_placeholder.png
  • Add fields images: field_field<NUMBER>.png
  • Variables images: <TRIGGERNAME>_trigger.png