Row Property

Function

Structured Switch/Column Count

Sets row to unstructured or defines number of columns. This can also be done with table icons.

Sync with parent/alternates

With structured tables, it's often convenient to have column resizing be reflected in the row immediately above the current row (the parent) or with a table row's different versions (alternates). Once enabled, individual column resizing will affect the corresponding parent or alternate row width. This is useful for synchronizing detail/header row changes.

Stay with this number of children

This is the heart of widow/orphan control. By default, a row is guaranteed to have at least one child in its group on the same page. This prevents such rows from being printed by themselves, which can be confusing. Increase this number for additional family bonding. If it exceeds the number of objects in a group, the group will never be broken across a page boundary.

Reprint when wrapped

When data overruns the bottom of the page and starts on a new page, upper level grouping details and headers are reprinted to retain context. Occasionally this doesn't makes sense. Select the row and click this switch to suppress this behavior. An alternative is to configure a Reprint version.

Print even if no objects in group

By default headers and summary rows for empty lists are suppressed. If you want an indication of the missing data turn this switch on.

Move row to bottom of page

Normally the Summary row will share a border with the last row on the table. Move to Bottom will move it down slightly so that it's always resting on the bottom border of the page. This is commonly used with the Running Summary feature.

Min Split/Remainder height

An advanced form of widow/orphan control is to be able to control how an exceptionally tall table row will break across a page (usually only the case when a large text block is involved). By default rows will only be split when at least an inch (72pts) was available on the first page (min split height) and at least an inch will be carried over to the successive page (min remainder height).

Most table rows will never use these settings. If you prefer to have table rows use all of the potential page space and don't care about trying to keep related text on the same page, you would set both of these to 10pts. If you never want a row to split, set these to 999.

Table Row Version Key

Allows you to configure different looks for the same table row based on some condition to provide visual hints.

The version key expression should return a string that is the name of a version that you've defined. Details here or example here.

Option

Function

Rounding

This thumbwheel allows you to set the rounding radius for the text border. It's immediately reflected in the editor window.

Overflow Behavior

Text can be set to paginate for form letters, shrink text to fit for static text boxes that may receive arbitrarily long text, or Grow for text fields in table rows (which can grow to accommodate large text blocks).

Always Show Border

Draws a gray border around text even when not selected. Sometimes useful as a visual cue while editing, without marking generated reports.

Coalesce Newlines

Coalesced newlines will make sure text uses the minimum lines necessary. Useful for substituted data that might contain missing keys, eg, "@name@\n@address1@\n@address2@\n@phone@\n@fax@".

Tab Stops

If you turn on rulers for the editor window (Tools->Toggle Rulers menu), you will notice that it shows tab markers while editing text. These can be dragged and reset to change the tab stops of the text field.

TIP

The inspector panel varies on an object by object basis. If you have trouble changing a property on a complex object, chances are it's here. Try clicking on different parts of the object then going through the Inspector Panel.