Getting to Know the Report Designer

The Report Designer is the area where you create reporting magic. With it, you design new reports, modify existing reports, write formulas, preview reports and print them out. It gives you all the tools necessary for designing hundreds of reports. Figure 1-4 shows the designer and its various windows.

Figure 1-4. The report designer.

There are 7 parts of the designer that are important: the toolbars, dockable windows, the Workbench, the Report Explorer, the Field Explorer, the Design tab, and the Preview tab. Each part is explored next.