Question

Apologies for simple the question – I haven’t been able to find a suitable answer elsewhere.

I am using the standalone BIRT report designer (v3.7.1) and can happily generate reports.

I am generating multi-page reports, and am finding that I do not have enough visible area in the layout space to add all the necessary controls.

If I fix the control heights manually (e.g. row height), then my PDF output gets clipped. If I leave the controls as auto (no height value), then my PDF output is fine, but then I quickly run out of space in the layout designer.

I must be missing something simple, but how does one design a multi-page report with only a single layout page to work with?

Many thanks for any help.

Answer 1

If you add more report items than can fit on the predefined page, you should find that the page length expands in the designer view to display all the added items, but is correctly paged when you view the output by Run > View Report > As PDF. (Preview will not paginate the output.)

If you want to have the additional page space visible before you add the extra items, change the page size to be twice its current length (or as long as required) while designing the report. You can do this by:

• Select Page > Master Page from the menu (or select the Master Page tab instead of the Layout tab in the report designer).
• Select Window > Show View > Property Editor (if the Property Editor window isn’t already visible).
• From the General properties, change the Type value to be Custom.
• Replace the Height property to be twice its current length (or as long as required).

When you have finished laying out the report and want to check the output, don’t forget to change the paper type back to its original setting.