Report Portions

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In the Report Structure section of the Prepare Report Run window, you set up the portions that make up the report and, for each portion, the report template slots to which subjects are to be assigned.

Report run

Portions – every report run must have at least one portion
Report Template Slots, with every portion having at least one slot
General and Subject templates are set up in appropriate slots.

 

minusUnderstanding portions

A portion is a section of a report which always begins on a new page and which has its own layout requirements. For example a portion could be a single summary page of all the student’s subjects, or a set of full page subject reports for the main subjects being undertaken, or a set of shorter reports for other subjects, etc. Below 6 portions have been created for the Semester 1 reports.

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At least one portion is required for any report run. For example, if your school wants to produce a simple, one page report on which each subject is included, you only need one portion. On the other hand, you may want to have a cover page, followed by an academic summary page and then a full page for each subject. In this case, you will need three portions.

Portions allow you to:

Determine the order in which different components of the report print out, eg that a cover page prints before the summary portion.
Print text or pages which are not subject-specific at any point throughout the report, eg at the beginning and/or end of a set of subjects.
Set up different sets of parameters for different report components or sets of subjects, eg whether the subjects in the portion are to have a common layout or not, with each beginning on a new page or that they are to print directly after each other.
Control the page setup of the portion, including page margins, orientation, headers and footers, via a Layout template.
Start a new page in your reports.

 

minusCreating a new portion

To create a new portion for a report run:

Open the report run you wish to work on via the Report Run Explorer or the Quick Find pane.
In the Report Structure pane, click on the Report Run branch if you want to create a portion directly below it.

OR

Click an already-existing portion if you want to add a portion directly below it.
Click the New report portion icon, or right click and select New report portion from the menu.

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In the Report Portion section that then appears below:
Enter a name for the portion.
Select the Layout Style from the dropdown list.

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If the layout style is either Part Page or Full Page Common Layout, you will need to create a layout template for the portion, or attach one that already exists.

 

minusMoving portions into position

Reports for a report run will print in portion order. Therefore, it is important that they are either created in the correct order, or moved into the correct order if created in the wrong position.

If you wish to change the position of a portion:

In the Report Structure pane, click the portion you wish to move.
Click the appropriate one of the Move up or Move down icons, clicking until the portion is in the required position.

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minusDeleting a portion

If you have created a portion in error or it is not required for some reason, you may remove it.

Deleting a portion will also remove the slots and the subject associations of the portion. It will not, of course, delete the actual subjects.

In the Report Structure pane, click the portion you wish to delete.
Click the Delete icon.

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In the Delete report portion box that appears you will be informed of the extent of the deletion, ie the number of templates that will also be deleted, and you must click the OK button to proceed with the deletion.

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The portion, its slot and templates will appear as marked for deletion and you must click the Save icon to remove them permanently.
Alternatively, click the Reinstate icon to cancel the deletion.

 

minusPortion layout styles and templates

Each portion has its own layout style. For example, a cover page portion would be a full page layout, whereas a summary portion’s layout would require each subject to appear on the one page, as part of a common layout.

A Report Portion section appears in the Prepare Report Run window when you click a portion in the Report Structure box.

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Therein, you determine the layout style, which should be one of the following:

Part Page Common Layout, with a layout template controlling the common layout.
Full Page Common Layout means each subject report is to begin on a new page, but the Layout template for the portion controls the page setup and headers and footers of each page.
Full Page Unique Layout is used where each subject template begins on a new page, and they are controlled by the subject template itself. This allows each subject template to have its own page setup and headers/footers.

 

For any portion where you have chosen either Part Page Common Layout or Full Page Common Layout, you should create a layout template that contains the common layout for the portion.

Layout templates control:

The page margins, orientation and other page layout features of the particular portion.
The headers and footers of the whole portion.

Any text found in the body of a Layout template is totally ignored.

To begin with, when created, the layout template will be identical to the style template and you may retain the page layout features of the style template or change these, if necessary. Each portion can have its own layout template. For example, you may have a portion for Middle School with a particular report layout, whereas the Senior School portion has a different layout.

Note that it is not necessary to have a layout template if it is to be exactly the same as the Style template. Where it is missing, the Style template will be used.

A series of icons at the bottom of the Report Portion section allow you to perform operations relating to layout templates, ie to create, attach, open the template in Word, refresh and detach a layout template.

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The decision flowchart will help you decide on your layout needs and the types of templates you require for each portion.

 

minusCreating a layout template

To create a layout template for a report portion that is either a part or full page common layout, follow these steps:

Click the portion name in the Report Structure pane.
Ensure you have selected either Part Page Common Layout or Full Page Common Layout.

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Click the Create layout template icon at the bottom of the Report Portion section.

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In the Create new layout template box that appears:
Either accept the selected option and default name for the file that appears, eg Subject table_Layout, or assign another name.
If the new layout template is to be based on one already created, tick the Initialise checkbox and click the Browse button to select the already-existing layout template on which the new template is to be based.
Click the OK button.

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Wait while the layout template is created, with its name appearing in the Layout Template field when completed.
Click the Save icon or press Ctrl S.
Click the Open layout template in Word icon below the Report Portion section.
In Microsoft Word, set up a layout template:
Page margins, orientation and other page layout features of the particular portion, where these are different to the style template.
Any headers and footers that are to apply to each page of the portion, including appropriate page layout settings where you want a different first page and/or odd and even headers or footers.
Insert Accelerus report fields in the locations where you want replacement data to print, eg the student’s name, the report run name, etc.
Save and close the layout template when complete.
Save the Prepare Report Run window by pressing Ctrl S or clicking the Save icon.