Displaying the Property Inspector Setting report properties Setting preferences for the Object Navigator Setting properties for an ASCII character-mode report

4-4 Oracle Reports Users Guide to Building Reports ■ Setting color palette preferences ■ Setting properties of multiple objects ■ Comparing the properties of one object to another

4.2.1 Displaying the Property Inspector

To display the Property Inspector for an object: ■ In the Object Navigator, do any of the following: ■ Double-click the icon immediately to the left of the object name. ■ Click the object name, then right-click and choose Property Inspector. ■ Click the object name, then choose Tools Property Inspector. ■ Click the object name, then press F4. ■ In the Report Editor views, do any of the following: ■ Double-click the object. ■ Click the object, then right-click and choose Property Inspector. ■ Click the object, then choose Tools Property Inspector. ■ Click the object, then press F4. See also Section 1.10.1, About the Property Inspector

4.2.2 Setting report properties

To set the properties for a report: 1. In the Object Navigator, double-click the properties icon next to the report name to display the Property Inspector. 2. Set report properties as desired.

4.2.3 Setting report preferences

To specify the preferences for a report:

1. Choose Edit Preferences.

2. To specify preferences for designing reports, set values on the General, Access,

and Wizards tabs. 3. To specify preferences for running reports, set values on the Runtime Values and Runtime Settings tabs.

4. For a detailed description of settings in the Preferences dialog box, click Help.

4.2.3.1 Using the Auto Save Feature

Oracle Reports 11g Release 1 11.1.1 provides the Auto Save feature that recovers any unsaved changes during an unexpected event in Reports Builder or system failure. If Auto Save is enabled, Reports Builder recovers any unsaved data automatically. To enable the Auto Save feature: 1. In the Object Navigator, choose Edit Preferences... How To... 4-5

2. In the General tab, select the Auto Save check box.

3. Click OK.

4.2.4 Setting preferences for the Object Navigator

To specify options for the Object Navigator display:

1. In the Object Navigator, choose Tools Options Navigator.

2. In the Object Navigator Options dialog box, change the settings as desired.

3. Click OK.

See also Section 1.5.1, About the Object Navigator

4.2.5 Setting properties for an ASCII character-mode report

To set properties for an ASCII character-mode report: 1. Double-click the properties icon next to the report name to display the Property Inspector.

2. Under the Character Mode node, set Design In Character Units to Yes.

3. In the Object Navigator, under the Paper Layout node, double-click the Header

Section, Main Section, or Trailer Section properties icon for the pertinent report section Header, Main, or Trailer to display the Property Inspector.

4. In the Property Inspector, under the Section node:

■ set the Report Width and Report Height to the appropriate character-mode dimensions for the report. For example, 132 or 180 width x 66 height for landscape or 102 width x 85 or 116 height for portrait. ■ set the Orientation property to the desired value.

5. In the Object Navigator, expand the Data Model node, then the System

Parameters node.

6. Double-click the properties icon next to MODE to display the Property Inspector,

and set the following properties: ■ Under the Parameter node, set the Initial Value property to Character. 7. In the Paper Layout view, choose Tools Options Rulers to display the Ruler Settings dialog box: ■ Set Units to Character Cells and Number of Snap Points Per Grid Spacing to 1. ■ Click OK. 8. Click View in the menu bar and make sure that Snap to Grid is checked. 9. Choose Edit Preferences to display the Preferences dialog box: ■ On the Wizards page, set Horizontal Interfield to 1 and Vertical Interfield to 0. Note: By default, a report is defined in the Main section. 4-6 Oracle Reports Users Guide to Building Reports ■ Click OK. 10. Choose Format Font, and select the font, style, and size that most closely approximates the character-mode font. For example, Courier, Regular, 12 points. See also Section 4.5.9, Creating an ASCII character-mode report

4.2.6 Setting color palette preferences