Rave Reports Visual Designer

Toolbar Tabs

We need to learn something about toolbars. First of all a toolbar is a collection of icons that usually are related in their function(s). RAVE has several toolbars. To give you the most flexibility, these toolbars have been designed to stay out of the way unless you want them visible. This section will describe each item of the visual designer and describe how it works including any settings or properties that influence or control that item.

The main toolbar selection tabs are shown above. The menu item "Tools - Toolbars" has options to control the visibility of each toolbar. Each item acts like a toggle, click it on (checked) and that selected toolbar will be visible. Click it off (unchecked) and that same toolbar tab will not be visible. If a toolbar tab is visible then you can select any of those components by "clicking" on the icon desired. Also, notice that as the mouse moves over a component icon, that you will get pop-up help identifying what that particular component is for. The toolbars (Windows OS) are designed to remember their last position. So you can close it, do some design work and when you bring it back it will be displayed at its last position.

Docked Toolbar (only on Windows OS)

Floating Toolbar (only on Windows OS)

When a toolbar is visible (in the Windows OS) it can be in one of two states, docked or floating. If there is a ribbed section (like the one above) then that toolbar is docked. If it has a title bar on top (like the right one above) with an "X" to close the bar in the top right corner then it is a floating toolbar. This handle is the ribbed section if it is docked style or the title bar if it is floating style. To move a toolbar, place the mouse cursor somewhere on the "toolbar handle", press and hold the left mouse button while dragging the toolbar to its new location. If you move it to an area that it can be docked, the outline shape will change indicating that it is in a docking area and it will indeed dock there if you release the mouse at that point. The best way to get familiar with this is to try it yourself. It doesn't matter which toolbar you use. Activate one, move it around, make it dock on the sides of the page layout area.

Toolbar Tabs

OK now that you are familiar with toolbars in general let's go back and examine those Toolbar tabs more closely. The last 4 tabs (on the far right) are special toolbars (known as "Components Toolbar"). The tabs shown to the left of those "Components Toolbar" are known as tools. A component is usually a visible item that you place on the page, like a region, shape, line or bar code etc. There are a few non-visible components that are placed on a page, like the "Font Master" and some of the "Calc" components. A "tool" is something used to modify an item already on the page or is used to change your preferences on how Rave works..

See Also:

Components