Report Designer Office Edition User Interface (Ribbon) Reference
The Report Designer Office Edition interface consists of two tabs in the Word, Excel or PowerPoint ribbon: the AutoTag and AutoTag Manager tabs. This article describes the various buttons, icons, menus and links on those tabs.
AutoTag Tab Sections
Data
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
|
Input Parameters |
Create a variable inside of AutoTag and build a dropdown box or select field with a list of values. When users run the report, they will either enter a value in the select box or choose one from a dropdown list. |
|
POD Bin |
PODs contain predefined groups of tags that you can drag and drop into report templates. (These groups are defined, saved, and added to the Bin by you or your organization.) |
|
Data Bin |
The Data Bin contains all the data that is accessible from a data source. You can create Tags by dragging and dropping items from the Data Bin onto your template. |
|
Tag Tree |
The Tag Tree provides a graphical view of the structure of your template. |
Tags
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
|
Tags |
Click this button to insert one of Report Designer's 16 tags. |
| Select Tag | This selects the Tag on which you have your cursor. It is especially useful when working with Text Tags. It's best practice to delete a Tag by using this button to select the Tag, then use the Delete Tag button to delete it. |
| Delete Tag |
Use this button to delete a selected Tag. |
| Edit Tag | Clicking this button brings up the Tag Editor. |
| Next, Previous | Use these buttons to quickly jump from Tag to Tag in a template. |
Tag Properties
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
|
Datasource |
This drop-down menu allows you to assign a data source to the selected Tag. There will be a menu item for each data source defined in the template. |
|
Data Tree |
This button presents a graphical view of the data in your data source. It's a short cut to the Tag Editor Data Tree Pane. Use it to assign data to the selected Tag. |
|
Data Count |
Evaluate all ForEach tag selects and count the number of rows of data that will be processed when the report is run. |
| Wizard | This button brings up the SQL, XPath or JsonPath Wizard for the selected Tag, depending on the type of data source connected to the Tag. Beginning in 16.1, it also brings up the Condition Wizard for the selected Tag. |
| Preview | Selecting a Tag and clicking this button will produce a popup window displaying the data the Tag will retrieve when output is generated from the template. |
Output
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Verify | This button executes the Tags in the template with special error checking, and displays potential problems (without generating output). |
| Output | When your report is Tagged and ready to generate output against your live data, click Output and select the type of document you wish to create. |
Help
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Help | Clicking on this button opens a browser tab with articles in our online Knowledge Base. |
| Samples | This button opens the Sample Templates of our in-product Getting Started Guide. |
| Windward Tutor | This button opens our online Report Designer Tutorial. |
AutoTag Manager Tab Sections
Data
PODS are Portable Object Doclets: snippets of Microsoft Word objects that can be used in other templates.
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Data Sources |
Click this button to bring up the Connection Editor (to add a new data source or manage your data sources), or click the small arrow to choose a recently used data source for a new template. |
|
Load PODs |
This button lets you load groups of Tags (PODs) that can be used in another template, or in Javelin. |
|
Create PODs |
Use this button to create or edit groups of Tags that can be used in other templates, or in Javelin. |
|
Generate Code |
Generate sample source code reflecting the template's configuration for use with the Report Engine APIs. |
|
Debug Connection |
Use this drop-down menu to select a SQL, XML or OData connection debugger. |
| Debug Select |
This drop-down menu lets you select a SQL or XML query debugger. |
|
Validate |
This button starts a validation process, to check your Tags and display warnings and errors if it finds problems (without generating output). |
|
Debug Template |
The Template Debugger can help you determine why your template is not generating the output you expect. |
|
Data Count |
Click on this button to see how many rows or nodes are returned by all of the Tags in the template. |
| Equation | Insert a Windward function into a Tag to further manipulate your data. When in Excel, most native functions can also be used in Tags. |
Tools
| Find/Replace | This tool allows you find and replace text in Tags throughout a template. |
|
Clean Template |
This tool "scrubs" the template: it closes your existing template; opens the new scrubbed template; deletes the old template; and renames the new template with the name of the original template. |
|
List Imports |
Lists all subtemplates imported into a master template's output via Import Tags, including subtemplates imported inside imported subtemplates. |
| List POD Frames |
Click on this button to scan the template and list all Pod frames listing their type, GUID and page/line number in the template. |
|
Build SQL Schema |
Use this tool to build a SQL Schema file that can be used to trim unneeded DB objects from huge SQL data sources. |
Options
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
|
Options |
This button opens the Report Designer Options window, where options global to a template can be set such as logging, the template's locale, whether Tags are inserted as Text Tags or Field Tags, etc. |
| License | View or update your license key. |
| Website | This is a link to the Windward Studios website. |
| About | Click on this button to see general information about your Report Designer installation, such as the version number and when your license key expires. |
| Help | This is a link to our online Knowledge Base with several useful articles. |
Getting Started Guide
| Interface Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Quick Start | Click on this button to bring up the in-product Getting Started Guide. |
| Step-by-Step | This button opens the Step-By-Step panel, which shows you how to create your first template and output. |
| Samples | This button brings up the in-product Getting Started Guide with its Sample Templates section open. |
| Windward Tutor | This is a link to our online Report Designer tutorial. |
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