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Printable Document Layout Creation#

🔒 PrintableDocument.Edit

It is not possible to design the layout of a Printable Document in the creation wizard. After the PrintableDocument is created, a default layout will be provided. To modify the default layout it is necessary to edit the layout of the Printable Document after it is created.

Info

When creating a new version of an existing PrintableDocument it is created with the same layout as the version from which the new version was created.

To Create/Edit the PrintableDocument layout, click the Edit Layout button.

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Clicking on the Edit Layout button will open the layout editor as shown in the next picture. For more information on how to edit the layout, please see the sections below.

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Info

Due to technical limitations, it's not possible to access the Data Source object directly in the designer and the expression needs to be written manually (e.g.: {AppliesToValue.Name}).

Warning

Do not forget to save the changes before exiting the layout editor.

Warning

Due to some caching issues related to the editor, it is strongly recommended to use a single session and to edit one printable document at a time.

Default Printable Document Layout#

The default layout (used when a new Printable Document is created), is composed of a single page containing a single Data Band with a few properties set, such as:

  • Height, set to the page weight (extends the full page).

  • Width, set to the page width.

  • DataSourceName, set to the name of the first Serial Number context item, or to ‘Copies' if no Serial Number item exists.

  • NewPageAfter, set to true, which means that a new page will be created for each value in the Collection pointed by the DataSourceName (see above), i.e., that it will create as many copies of the page has the number selected by the user for NumberOfCopies.

Editing Document and Page Properties#

Apart from the default properties mentioned above, the properties editor allows you to edit the properties of any layout element, including the page object and the Report (Document).

For example, to set the paper size to a size different from the default select the page, and then on the page properties change the Page Width or Page Height as desired.

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Layout Design#

Context Items#

All values of the Printable Document Context Items plus the system data items, are available on the layout designer Dictionary page, meaning that it can be used on any expression in the layout elements (e.g. to calculate their contents, visibility and the style).

Scalar type items will be part of the Variables group and object type or collection type items will be part of the Data Sources group.

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Additional Information#

The layout designer is an integral part of the third-party software used for document printing in Critical Manufacturing (Stimulsoft Reports.Web). It is a rich designer with many available options. This manual does not cover every feature of this designer; only the basic features. More detailed information on all features can be found on the Stimulsoft web site ⧉.

These links are of special interest: