Report Controls

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Every window for printing a report contains a number of buttons at the bottom:

Preview: Goes to the Preview section of the window and creates a preview of the report. Preparing such a preview may take some time.

Refresh: Updates the window to reflect any recent changes in data. For example, suppose you're looking at a preview of a report about work requests; meanwhile, somebody else at your company creates a new request. The new request isn't automatically added to the report you're looking at—you have to click Refresh first.

Export Data: Exports the report's data in XML format. The result is primarily intended to serve as input for user-written programs which process the data in some way. This contrasts with the Preview export facilities (discussed below), which are most useful for embedding in Microsoft Word documents and other "unprocessed" contexts.

Close: Closes the window. (This button is only present if you opened a separate window to print the report.)

The Preview section of a print window contains a control bar:

This bar contains the following (from left to right):

Document Map button: By default, the left side of the Preview section contains a map of the report. This map can show you the report's sections and the contents of each section. If you click the Document Map button, the map will disappear; click it again and the map comes back.

If you click an entry in the document map, the preview changes to show you that entry.

First Page button: Goes to the start of the document.

Previous Page button: Goes to the previous page of the document.

Gives the page number that is currently being displayed and the total number of pages in the report. You can go to a specific page by typing the appropriate page number into the box.

Next Page button: Goes to the next page of the document.

Last Page button: Goes to the last page of the document.

Parent Report button: Goes to the item that contains the currently selected item. For example, if you're looking at an item within a section, this button goes to the beginning of the containing section.

Stop button: Stops MainBoss processing the report. You might click this if MainBoss is preparing a lengthy report and you decide you don't want to see the report after all.

Print button: This is the button that actually prints the report.

Print Layout button: Switches the display to layout format. This shows you a scaled-down version of the page as it will actually print. Click the button again and you go back to the normal display format.

Page Setup button: Opens a window where you can specify paper size, margin size, and other printing information.

Export button: Exports information from the report into a file. If you click the down-arrow associated with this button, you'll see a list of available export formats. The formats currently supported include Microsoft Excel and Acrobat PDF.

Once you specify what type of output you want, MainBoss will open a window asking you to specify a file where the exported data should be stored. Loosely speaking, MainBoss exports the data in a format similar to what's displayed in the preview. For example, if you export data in Excel format, the result can be read into Excel (or embedded in a Microsoft Word document) to produce something that looks very much like the original report. If, on the other hand, you want to export data for processing by some user-written program, it's probably better to use the Export Data button (discussed previously).

Scale: Controls the scale of information displayed in the preview window. For example, if you set the scale to 200%, you'll see the information at twice its normal size. If you set the scale to 50%, you'll see it at half its normal size.

Searching: To search for information in the report, type the text you want to find in the box, then click "Find". For example, if you're looking at a full Units report and want information on a particular unit, type the unit name in the box and click "Find". Clicking the associated "Next" button goes to the next occurrence of the same text.

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