Basic Menu Layout

Basic menu layout

A typical REPORTER session will look like this:

Within this main window there are a number of sections

• "Menu Bar" Access to the main pull down menus.
• " File " toolbar for opening, saving, and creating report template.
• " View " toolbar for changing the view.
• " Generate " toolbar for generating your report, page, and items.
• " Page " toolbar to navigate your report.
• " Animation " toolbar to control playback for animated items.
• " Oasys link " toolbar to open linked instanced of D3PLOT and T/HIS.
• " Undo " toolbar to host undo and redo functionality.
• " Design " toolbar to switch between the presentation and design view.
• " Page Navigation " toolbar to navigate your report easily.
• " Tools " toolbar for creating and editing shapes and advanced objects.
  
• " Format " toolbar to modify items in the report.
• "Main Report Area" Main working area.

File toolbar

The file toolbar gives a quick way to create a new template, open a template or save a template. See Opening and Closing Templates and Reports for more details.

View toolbar

The view toolbar gives a quick way of zooming in and out of the template using the magnifying glass button. This is the same as using the Zoom submenu from the View menu. There are also 4 further buttons which control (from left to right respectively):

• the grid visibility,
• the snap option,
• the visibility of the item generation order , and,
• the page master view.

Generate toolbar

The generate toolbar includes 3 buttons which can be used to generate the entire report, the current page, or the currently selected items. These options are also available in various other places (e.g. the File and Template menus, the Page menu, and the right-click context menu for certain items).

Page toolbar

The page toolbar provides arrow buttons to navigate up or down a page as well as an input box to jump to a specific page. The 3 remaining buttons enable addition, deletion, and duplication of pages. See Inserting and Editing Pages for more details.

Animation toolbar

Starting with 18.0, the D3PLOT, Image, and Image File Item types now support animation. The animation toolbar provides buttons for controlling the playback of all animated Items on the current page. From left to right, these buttons have the following functions:

• Restart - pause all animations and go back to the first frame.
• Step back - pause all animations and go back one frame.
• Play/Pause - play or pause all animations.
• Step forward - pause all animations and go forward one frame.
• End - pause all animations and skip to the final frame.
• Speed - adjust the speed at which animations are played (as a factor of their base frames per second).

Oasys link toolbar

The Oasys link toolbar provides buttons for opening linked instances of D3PLOT and T/HIS.

Undo toolbar

The undo toolbar hosts the undo and redo functionality in REPORTER. It also gives you access to the undo history menu. See Undo for more details on undo in REPORTER. 

Design toolbar

The two buttons on the design toolbar buttons allow you to swap between the "design" view (wrench and screwdriver icon) and the "presentation" view (easel icon) . See Generating Reports  for more details. By default the Design toolbar is docked on the left hand side. However you can drag it and make it a floating menu if you wish. The "p" keyboard shortcut can be used to toggle between "design" view and "presentation" view.

Page Navigation toolbar 

The Page Navigation bar allows you to easily navigate your report. This toolbar gives you the following functionality:

• Scroll through page thumbnails; click on a page thumbnail to move to that page
• Drag-and-drop to re-order pages 
• Right click to:
  • Insert page after
  • Insert page before
  • Delete page
  • Duplicate page
  • Edit page properties

As you modify your report, the page thumbnails will update in real-time.

See Inserting and Editing Pages for more details.

Tools toolbar The Tools toolbar on the left contains the various objects which you can place on the page. These may be simple objects such as lines , rectangles , text etc or more complicated objects such as a D3PLOT object or a library program . All of these items are also accessible from the Insert menu. The level of detail shown alongside the Tool icons can be controlled using the "Show labels" checkbox. Here we have "Show labels" ticked so that each icon is given accompanying text. This is the same text that is shown when letting the mouse hover over the button for a couple of seconds. By default the Tools toolbar is docked on the left hand side. However you can drag it and make it a floating menu if you wish. See Inserting and Editing Simple Objects and Advanced Objects for more details.

Format toolbar On the right of the page behind the Tools toolbar, the Format toolbar is used for quick editing of items. Changes made here affect all currently selected items. All toolbars undockable and can be rearranged at will (or removed entirely by pressing the X button). Removed toolbars can be replaced using View ... Toolbars . The Format toolbar can be accessed either by creating an item, which will bring the Format toolbar to the front (see Editing for more details), or by pressing on the "Format" tab. The Format toolbar contains five sections: Geometry Style Font Paragraph Arrange/Align items
Geometry The Geometry section provides a means of controlling the precise size and location of Items on a page. The options displayed here correspond to the chosen 'Object coordinates' in the Editing tab of the Preferences window (see below). When 'Use one corner, width, and height' is selected, the X and Y values in the Geometry toolbar give coordinates for the chosen Reference Corner of the selected item while W and H give its width and height. When 'Use 2 opposite corners' is selected, X, Y, W, H are replaced by X1, Y1, X2, Y2 respectively.
Style The Style section can be used to change the line style , line width , line colour , fill colour and text colour for shapes. See Setting line style, thickness, colour and fill colour for more details.
Font The Font section can be used to change the font, font size, and style (bold, italic, underline). This can be used, for example, to quickly change the font settings for all entries in a table.
Paragraph The Paragraph section can be used to change the horizontal and vertical alignment of text within items. This affects Items in the Text and Tables item groups.
Arrange/Align items The Arrange/Align section can be used to change the positioning of Items relative to one another. The top row of buttons alter how Items are stacked on top of one another (e.g. for positioning Text or a Note on top of another Item). The drop down button on the second row has options 'Align to Selection' or 'Align to Page' which determines how the buttons on the bottom two rows are implemented. The bottom two rows feature the alignment buttons. With 'Align to Selection' in use, pressing the 'Align left' button will align all selected items to the leftmost item. With 'Align to Page' selected, pressing the 'Align left' button will align all selected items to the left of the page. Functionality of the other buttons is provided in tooltips, accessed by hovering over the button for a few seconds with the cursor.