Report Definition

The Report Definition list contains all reports that are present in your system. You can build your own reports to print any information that you have stored in Collect!. Many sample reports are available that you may modify to suit your requirements.

When you select a report from the Report Definition list, the Report Definition form will display your chosen report's design and codes. Select a report to open the Report Definition form.

Report Definition

The Report Definition form is used to create and edit reports. This is the user interface for Collect!'s report writer. The Report Definition form has several sections outlined below.

Name

This is the exact name of the report. Choose a name that clearly identifies your report. This name will help you when you need to choose a report in one of Collect!'s other forms or pick lists, such as when scheduling a Letter Contact.

If you change the Name of the report, be sure to update any references to it in your contact plans or letter contacts!

Start On

This is the form which must be currently displayed when you start printing the report. Select the Start On arrow to display a list of choices called "Report can be printed from." Your choice is a very important part of your report design. It determines where in Collect! your report will start to pull its data. For instance, if your report starts on " Debtor," then you have to be on a Debtor or viewing the list of Debtors to print the report.

If you are NOT on the right form, you will not be able to access your Report when you try to view Reports and Letters.

Select Print from the top menu bar and then select Reports and Letters. You will only see reports that can be printed from the form you are currently viewing. For instance, if you are on the Debtor form and you select this menu option, you will see a Print Report list of reports. When those reports were defined, the Start On field was set to Debtor. Reports that "Start On" Client will not be in the Print Report list at this time.

However, if you are on the Client form and you pull down the Print menu and choose Reports and Letters, the list of reports that is displayed will not have the same reports in it as the list above. Instead, it will show the reports that "Start On" Client and not ones that "Start On" Debtor.

Some reports are defined to "Start On" ANYWHERE. They will show up in the Print Report list no matter what form you are on.

The Report Definition list displays the name of the "Start On" form for each listed report.

Some reports are defined to "Start On" INTERNAL. This is a special case for a few built-in reports that may be printed from the Print menu, Daily, Monthly, Analysis and Trust Reports.

Any of the internal reports may be replaced with your own customized version. To make Collect! run your own custom reports via the Print menu, Daily, Monthly, Analysis and Trust reports, change the Start On to something other than INTERNAL, depending on the particulars of your report, and place your own report codes in the Report Body of the report.

Header

Some reports may have column headings and other text that you want to print at the top of each page. These may be defined in the Header section.

Please refer to How To Use Headers And Footers for more information.

Footer

Some reports may have text that you want to appear at the bottom of each page of the report. This may be defined in the Footer section.

Please refer to How To Use Headers And Footers for more information.

Report Body

This is the section where you actually create or edit your report template. It may contain text, printable information codes for database fields and symbols for formatting fonts and margins. It may also contain commands for printing your company logo, printing boxes and lines and other graphics.

If you are modifying or viewing an existing report, this "window" will show the actual code in this report. A new report will show nothing in the Report Body until you click into it. Then the text editor will present you with a blank screen where you can begin to design your report.

Function Keys

F1 Help............. Opens up this Help topic
F2 Pick............. Pick from database fields and other items
F5 Print............ Print all your notes
F7 Delete........... Delete the current line
F8 Save and Exit.... Save the report and exit

Text Editor

Use this window to create or edit reports. Press F2 to see a list of common types of codes you can use in your report. Press F8 to save any changes you make in this window. Please refer to How to Build Reports or Letters for complete information on creating reports and letters.

Word Wrapping in the Report Writer

When you type in the Collect! report body the font is a common courier 10cpi character set. There are many benefits to this, lists are easier to line up for example. When you print the report, it will print in the FONT that you have chosen, thus the difference in looks. That is why the layout of the report body is very basic and manual. You must control the line lengths, with the particular font you are using. Therefore if you change the font, move the margins or edit paragraphs you will have to take care of the line length.

If you are using a non-fixed length font in your template, that's fine but it means that you will be able to fit more than the standard 80 characters on a line. As you are typing, when you come within 2 characters of the right window edge, Collect! will word wrap the line for you automatically. This may not be what you desire.

You can look in the status bar at the bottom of the report body to see the exact line (row) and column (character) that the cursor is on at the moment. This may help guide you when correcting your lines.

Correct Line Length in Your Report

1. Type your text into the editor.


2. Go to the end of any line that prints too short and press
the DELETE key. This will bring up the line from below up to the line you are on.

3. You should then go to the word you think should be at the
end of that line and press ENTER to have the text to the right of your cursor drop to the line below.

4. Repeat this process till all lines are far enough to the right.

You see there is no right margin. It's just word wrapping at 80 characters when you type. This is because if you used a fixed length font, that's where your page would end.

As mentioned above, you can keep track of how many characters to the right you are, by paying attention to the bottom left corner of the report writer. This is your cursor's position within the report body. Non-fixed length fonts can be up to 132 characters to the line.

Options

Select this button to display the Report Options form where you may enter additional settings for the report or ensure that Collect!'s defaults are restored.

This is where you set a font, page orientation, printing output destination, Letter Service letter number, and other options such as security access levels and default margins. Also, the Report Options are used for special printing requirements like printing to a third party word processor letter or mailing label template.

Press F1 when you have opened the Report Options form to see details of the possible settings.

Print

This button allows you to test print your report right from the Report Definition that you are designing or viewing. You may be prompted to choose a record or set of records to include in the report when you print it.

Select this button to print a test report sample, ONLY. Do not attempt to print an actual report from this form!

Be aware that some reports cannot be adequately tested from the Report Definition form and MUST printed from the form that the report Start's On.

To do this, finish viewing or designing your report.

Exit to the Main Menu and choose the form that your report is meant to Start On. Select Print from the top menu bar and then select Reports and Letters from the drop-down choices.

Your report should display in the Report Definition list and you can select it and print it.

Help

Press this button for help on the Report Definition form and links to many topics related to reports and printing.

Cancel

Select this button to ignore any changes you may have made and return to the previous screen

OK

Select this button to save any changes you may have made and return to the previous screen.

Delete

This button is visible only on the list of all Report Definitions. Select this to delete the highlighted item from the database.

Edit

This button is visible only on the list of all Report Definitions. Select this to open and modify the highlighted item.

New

Select this to open a new blank Report Definition form.

<<

Select this button to scroll down one page in the list of Report Definitions.

>>

Select this button to scroll up one page in the list of Report Definitions.

Moving Reports In The Report Definition List

As you develop your own reports, you may want to reorder the reports as they appear in the list so that the reports that you use most often are at the top when the list opens. To do this, you can copy and paste reports in the list.

1. Select Print from the top menu bar and then select Edit Reports from the drop-down choices.

2. When the Report Definition list appears, scroll to the report you wish to move. Make sure the report is highlighted in black.

3. Select the Edit menu from the top menu bar and then select Copy from the drop-down choices. Collect! will prompt you that the report has been copied to the Clipboard. Select OK.

4. Scroll to the place where you want the report to be moved to. Collect! will paste the report beneath the report that you select. So go up one more.

5. Select the Edit menu from the top menu bar and then select Paste from the drop-down choices. Collect! will paste the report into the new location.

6. Once the report has been pasted in its new location, be sure to delete the original from the old location. You want to avoid having more than one report with the same name.

Delete Reports From The List

You can press DELETE when you have a report selected. This will delete it from the list of reports.

If you need to delete more than one report, here are the steps to select multiple reports for deletion.

1. Select Print from the top menu bar and then select Customize Printing, Edit Report Templates. When you are looking at the list of reports, use your Spacebar to highlight the ones you want to delete. Be very careful that you only select the ones you want!

2. When you are finished selecting, select Edit from the top menu bar and then select View Tags. Confirm that these are the ones you want to delete.

3. Press the DELETE key on your keyboard and say YES to ALL.

Summary

Please refer to How To topics and the Help Index for additional information on Report Design and Printing procedures.

Collect! ships with many sample reports that you can use or modify. Pull down the Print menu and choose Customize Printing, Edit Report Templates to view the Report Definition list of all reports in Collect!.

Also, additional reports are available in the Collect! report folder. See Report Sample to view these reports.

Reports may also be downloaded from our web site at www.collect.org

Comtech Systems Inc. is available on a contractual basis for designing your custom reports.