Rave Reports Visual Designer

RAVE

A report can be described as data presented in a visual manner, whether it is on paper or displayed electronically. Typically, there are sets of database tables that provide data to create a report. For example, suppose there are: a Customer table, a Products table, and an Items Sold table. These tables could be combined to produce form letters, invoices or customer lists.

Let's begin with a quick overview of Rave. When you start the Rave program, the first thing seen will be a sheet representing a page on the screen as well as two windows on the side of the page and toolbars across the top of the page. There appears to be many items in the Rave designer, so where do you start? Let's start with what is shown when Rave is running. First, understand that there are two groups of toolbars displayed in the Rave designer; components and tools.

Components are items that are "dropped" on the page editor. These might be bands, bar codes, lines, shapes, etc. Don't worry about what these are yet. If the object can be seen on the page layout, it is a component.

Toolbars have change or modify components, thus distinguishing them as tools. There are several toolbars: alignment, color palette, font editor, etc. If there is a box on the page and it needs to be filled with a background color, first select that item (the box) by clicking on it. Then, use the color tool to change the fill color to any desired color.

That was a fast overview. There are many settings and properties that control the behavior of almost every part of the visual designer. This manual has two main parts, a description of the Rave system including the components and tools, then a reference section that list details about each property. First, go through the description section, then browse the reference section to get a better understanding on just how much control can be had over various design features.