Using the Report Designer


You can use Report Designer to:

What do you want to do?


 


Create a report using the Report Designer

  1. On the Explore tab, in the Reports group, click the arrow below New Report, and then click New Report via Designer.

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The New Report dialog box opens.

  1. In the Name box, enter a name for the report. You can optionally enter a description and title for your report.

  2. You can choose to build your report

  1. (Optional) In the Style list, select a style—you will not be able to choose a different style after the report is created.

  2. Click OK. A workspace opens in Detail View. The structure of the report is displayed on the left and the Field List is displayed on the right.

NOTE

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Change an existing report in the Report Designer

You can use the Report Designer to make changes to reports—including NVivo's predefined reports or those that you have created using the Report Wizard or Designer.

NOTE  Before making changes to a predefined report, it is a good idea to make a copy of the report first.

To change a report:

  1. In List View, click the report that you want to modify.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Item group, click the Open image.

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The report opens in the Report Designer in Detail View.

  1. Make changes to the design of the report—refer to Create a report using the Designer for more information about designing reports.

NOTE  For general information on Report Designer, refer to About Report Designer.

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Add fields to a report

  1. In the Field List pane, select a field to add to the report.

  2. On the Report tab, in the Add/Modify group, click Add Field.

Keyboard shortcut Press ENTER.

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The selected field and its label are added to the report. You can change the label—for example to change Name to Node Name.

NOTE

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Make changes to the headers or footers

By default, certain controls—for example, report title or report location—are added to the headers and footers in your report. Page headers and footers are printed on every page. Report headers and footers are printed at the start and end of the report.

You can make changes to the headers or footers—for example, you can

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Include totals and other calculations in a report

You can include expressions (calculations based on fields) in your report header or footer—for example, you could calculate the average number of coding references for your sources.

To include a calculation based on a field that you have already added to your report:

  1. In the Detail band, select the field you want to base your calculation on.

  2. On the Reports tab, in the Header & Footer group, click Totals, and then click the type of calculation you want from the list—for example Average.

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A control is added to the Report Footer band and when you run the report the calculation will be displayed in the results.

NOTE

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Sort, filter or group the data displayed in a report

In the Report Designer, you can add or change the sorting, filtering or grouping in your report.

To specify sorting for the report, click Sort in the Sort & Filter group, on the Report tab.

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To add a filter to a report, click Filter in the Sort & Filter group, on the Report tab.

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To add grouping to your report, click Group in the Grouping group, on the Report tab.

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NOTE For more information on sorting, filtering or grouping refer to Report criteria.

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Add text or images to a report

You can add text (up to 256 characters) or images to the report—for example, you could display the word  'Confidential' at the bottom of each page in the report or display a logo at the top of each page.

To add text to a header or footer band:

  1. Click the header or footer band you want to add text to.

  2. On the Report tab, in the Controls group, click Text.

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The Add Text dialog box opens.

  1. Enter the text you want to add to the report and click OK.

To add a logo to your report:

  1. Click the band you want to add the logo to.

  2. On the Report tab, in the Controls group, click Image.

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  1. Select the file that you want to insert and click OK.

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Change text or labels on a report

You can edit the text or the labels on a report. You can change the label associated with a field to make it more meaningful to your audience—for example, you could change Name to Node Name.

  1. Click the label control that you want to change.

  2. On the Report tab, in the Add/Modify group, click Modify.

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The Modify Label dialog box opens.

  1. Edit the text and click OK.

Shortcut Double click the text or label control.

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Resize or move a control on a report

You can make adjustments to your report by resizing or moving the controls on your report. For example, if some of the content is truncated when you run the report, you can increase the width of the control to display more text.

NOTE You can adjust the height of the Detail band—for example, if you want to decrease the row height in your report—click the band to select it and then drag the bottom resize handle ui_report_detail_resize.gif.

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Change the formatting of text in a report

The font, point size, color and bolding of text in a report is controlled by the style that you choose for your report. You cannot modify the style after you have created a report, but you can change the formatting of individual controls in the report.

CAUTION If you make changes to the formatting of text—and then subsequently choose a different layout or change grouping—then you will lose your formatting changes.

To change the formatting of text in a report:

  1. Click the control that you want to change.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Format group, select the formatting that you want to apply.

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Change the paper size, orientation, or margins of the report

  1. On the Layout tab, in the Page group, click Page Setup.

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The Page Setup dialog box opens.

  1. Set your preferences for paper size, page orientation and margins.

  2. Click OK.

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