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Report Lay-Outs When designing a report it is necessary to divide it into at least two sections. A further two are optional. Each section contains different kinds of information in it. These sections include: Layout Used to specify the general appearance and lay-out of the report before printing commences. This section is mandatory. Header One or more lines of 'heading' information that appears at the top of each page to introduce the report. This section is optional. Footer One or more lines of 'notes' information that appears at the bottom of each page of the report. This section is optional. Body The various lines of text and report instructions that tell CAPITAL GL Controller what to print. Each section is identified by placing a # symbol in front of the section key word. All reports must start with a layout command. For example, the following is the lay-out section from a typical report: #LAYOUT TITLE = Sample Report RULER = OFF Width = 78 AMOUNTS = 12 PERCENT = 6,2 NEGATIVE = BRACKET * -------------------------------------- As can be seen from the above sample, the lay-out section of a report consists of a series of instructions that define the overall characteristics of the report. Most lay-out instructions are optional. If a lay-out instruction is not specified, the default setting is used. The only instruction that is mandatory is TITLE = which specifies the name of the report that will appear in the financial statements print menu. (Without this setting CAPITAL would not know what to call the report.) Lay-out instructions are divided into a lay-out 'command,' an equals sign, and a value. Spaces are optional but recommended in order to improve readability. A list of available lay-out instructions follow: Amounts = The width of numbers (except for percentages) that will appear on reports. The default width is 15 digits. The smallest cannot be smaller than 6 digits and the largest cannot be larger than 18. So Amounts=16 would set the report width for numbers to 16. Bottom = The bottom margin setting. Specify the number of spaces to appear at the bottom of each page before moving to the next page. If this instruction is not specified, the default setting for standard reports is used. Currency = The currency symbol to place in front of amounts. For example, $. Don't include this instruction in the lay-out section if you don't want a currency symbol. Decimals = On | Off Indicates whether decimals points are to be included on the report or not. The default is to indicate decimals. If set to off, numbers are rounded up or down to the nearest whole dollar. The length of the report. The default is the same as the setting that has been specified for standard reports. Including this command on the report will override the default. The accepted range is between 10 and 9999 lines. Format = This option defaults to no formatting. Two key words are accepted: NONE and COMMA. If COMMA is specified, numbers are formatted with comma separators. For example, the number 1231.22 would appear as 1,231.22 on the report if formatting was specified as comma.
Heading = The report heading. This setting will be ignored if the ruler is set to off. (you may still put a heading in a report by defining a #header section in its place.) Left = The left margin of the report. The default setting is zero, which is the first printable column. Names = Used to specify the width of account code descriptions. The default width is the full description, which is 44 characters in length. This can be reduced by specifying a smaller number here. This option defaults to ( ) brackets. Three key words are accepted: bracket, minus and trail. Bracket will instruct the report printer to surround negative balances with round brackets. Minus will place minus signs in front of negative numbers and trail will place the negative sign behind negative numbers. Pad = Pad the front of numbers with spaces. This option only applies when Format=COMMA is used in reports. The default setting is 4 but it can be changed from 0 to 40 spaces. Percent = Accepts two numeric values separated by a comma. For example, "4,1". This setting is used to determine the width of percentage amounts and the number of decimal places to show after the number. Percentage amounts cannot be wider than 10 characters or smaller than 1. This option accepts either of two key words: on or off. Specify "on" if you want the header section of the report divided by a ruled line (as with a standard CAPITAL GL Controller report) or "off" if you want the ruler removed. Title = The name of the report as it will appear in CAPITAL's financial statements pull-down menu. Note that only report files that end with the extension .gpt will be included in this list. Top = The top margin setting. Specify the number of spaces to appear at the top of each page before printing begins. If this instruction is not specified, the default setting for "standard" reports is used. The width of the report. The default is 78 characters but this number may have to be increased, particularly for multi-column reports which usually average over 80 columns. The accepted range for this instruction is between 39 and 255. If the information on the report is wider than the width setting, the right-hand portion of the report will not print. _______________________ Related Topics: |
When Format=COMMA is specified, 4 spaces are padded in
front of numbers automatically, in order to make them easier to
read. You can reduce the amount of space placed in front of numbers
by changing the Pad= setting.