Editing and Formatting Reports

Posted on 12/11/2023

Editing Column Labels

To edit a column label, quickly double click on the column header label. This will put a dark blue box around the label indicating that it is selected. Right click and select Edit Text to edit the column label.

Formatting Data

There are a wide variety of formatting options available for custom reports. To access the formatting options for a given column, right click on the column header and select Format > Format Data. This will open the Format Data dialog. To determine the type of data fields that are in your report, right click on any column and select the Data Fields option. The Field Name column will be the column key name and the Type column will indicate the type of data that is in the column. If the type says “string”, then it is considered “text” for the purposes of this article.

Formatting any of the available types is done in the same way. The Format Data dialog will look different depending on the type of data that is being formatted. The following sections will go over the different types of data that can be formatted.

Each type provides a “Custom” option that provides a text box where a custom format can be entered. When selecting the Custom option, examples will be proivded of allowed characters.

Formatting Numbers

To format a number, select the column that contains the data you want to format, such as Actual Hours from the Timecard Transactions Entity. Open the Format Data dialog following the steps in Formatting Data. The dialog that opens may look like this:

The options for formatting numbers are:

• Unformatted
• General Number
• Currency
• Fixed (default for most)
• Percent
• Scientific
• Custom

The Unformatted and General Number formats drop any trailing zeros after the decimal point. Fixed format will be the default for most numbers that are coming out of Pro WFM and will display two decimal places by default. This number can be increased by changing the Decimal Places value from the dropdown. The max is 10. The other options can be changed according to personal preference.

Formatting Dates

The options for formatting dates are:

• mmm dd, yyyy (e.g. Jan 1, 2023)
• MMM dd, yyyy (e.g. January 1, 2023)
• mm/dd/yyyy (e.g. 01/01/2023)
• Custom

Formatting Date and Time

The options for formatting date and time are:

• Unformatted (default)
• MMM dd, yyyy
• mm dd, yyyy
• mm/dd/yyyy
• hh:mm:ss a Z (e.g. 12:00:00 PM UTC)
• hh:mm:ss a (e.g. 12:00:00 PM)
• HH:mm (e.g. 16:30)

The Unformatted option will be selected by default but it will not show as an option. The top option would be considered the “Unformatted” option since it is the same as the default.

Formatting Time

The time options are the same as the last 3 options for Formatting Date and Time.

Formatting Text

The options for formatting text are:

• Unformatted
• Uppercase
• Lowercase
• Custom

Formatting Currency

Formatting Currency is the same as Formatting Numbers. Select the Currency option from the dropdown when formatting a number. The available options to format the currency are:

• Symbol
• Symbol Position
• Decimal Places
• Use 1000s Separator
• Negative Numbers

Change these options according to personal preference.

Formatting Booleans

Formatting a boolean only allows you to change the display text for the boolean value.

Conditional Formatting

BIRT Studio allows you to format columns based on a specified condition. To open the Conditional Formatting window, right click on the column you want to apply conditional formatting to and select Format > Conditional Formatting. This will open the Conditional Formatting window. Your window may look different depending on the type of data you are formatting.

The top is a preview of the selected format. Click the Format link to open the formatting options. These are straight forward and can change things such as the Font, Font Size, Color, Background Color, and more.

In the next row, the first field determines when conditional formatting takes effect. It does not need to be the same one as the one selected. The second field is the condition such as Equal To, Between, Greater Than, etc. These are all explained in Applying Filters. Lastly, the text field is the value that must be met by the condition for the format to apply. For example, using the above screenshot as an example, if you want to format all values that are greater than 4, you would select the Greater Than condition and enter 4 in the text field.

Changing Font Properties

The font of the data in a column can be changed by right clicking on the column header and selecting Format > Font. This will open the Font dialog. The options are straight forward and can be changed according to personal preference.

Changing the Alignment of Text

The alignment of text in a column can be changed by right clicking on the column header and selecting Alignment. This will open the Alignment dialog. Choose one of the alignment options: Align Left, Align Center, or Align Right. Click OK to save the changes.

Changing the Order of Columns

To change the order of columns, select a column by clicking on anywhere inside the column. Make sure the column is selected, indicated by a dark blue border around the column. Left click and hold and drag the column to the desired location in the report design. A blue line will appear indicating where the column will be placed when the mouse button is released.

Alternatively, the entire table can be selected by selecting a column and then clicking the table handle above the column headers. Click the Edit icon to open the Table Builder window. The columns can be rearranged by selecting a column on the right side under Current Column Selections and clicking the up or down arrows to move the column up or down in the list. Click OK to save the changes.

The last option to change the order of the columns in the report is to preview the report in preview mode, and drag the column(s) to the desired location. You will need to save the report after making the changes.

Merging Data into One Column

You can merge the data from two or more columns into one column. When you merge data, the data appears on multiple lines. It also enables you to include more columns without exceeding the width of the page. This is ideal for some types of data but might not be ideal for others. Be sure to try it out in your own report to see if it works for you.

To merge data from a column, select all the columns that contain data to merge. Press Ctrl and click each column header to select multiple columns. Right click on any of the selected columns and select Column > Merge Columns. This will merge the data from the selected columns into one column.

How To Merge Column Headers

To merge the column headers, select the column header in the bottom row of the merged column by double clicking in the column header cell. This will put a border around the header label to indicate that it has been selected. Right click the selected column header and select Cell > Merge Up. This will merge the column header with the column header above it. Repeat this process until one column header remains.

Adding a New Column Header Row

If you need to add more text or space in the header area, you can add multiple column header rows. When you insert a new column header row, the row is added above the selected row and spans the entire width of the table. Formatting and borders are copied from the row below and can be changed later.

How To Add a New Column Header Row

To add a new column header row, double click inside the column header area. This will place a border around the column label to indicate the header is selected. Right click and select Cell > Insert Row Above to insert a new column header row. Choose Insert Row Below to insert a new column header row below the selected row.

How To Merge Column Headers to Type Text that Spans Multiple Columns

Double click on the column header row that you want to merge. This will place a border around the column header row to indicate the row is selected. Right click and select Cell > Merge Right to merge the selected column header to the right. Repeat this process across the entire row to merge all the columns in the row.

Changing Column Width

The column width of any column can be changed by selecting the column, moving the mouse over the right side of the column header until the cursor changes to the resize cursor and then clicking and dragging the column to the desired width.

Changing the Page Layout

Sometimes it is helpful to change the page layout if the report design contains many columns and the columns in the design are so squished that it is hard to read the column header label or the data itself.

To change the page layout, click the menu bar at the top and select File > Page Setup…. From here, you can change the Orientation from “Auto” to “Landscape” and the Page Layout from “Fixed” to “Auto Expand Width”. Click OK to save the changes.

The Master Page can also be changed to use a different paper size in the Size dropdown. The options are A4, US Legal, US Letter, and Custom which allows you to enter a custom paper size.

Margins of the report can be adjusted under the Margin label.

Changing the Report Title

To change the report title, double click the default Report Title text at the top of the report in the report header. This will place a cursor inside a text box to edit the report title. Click outside the text box to save the changes.