Adding items to a report

Chapter 4 Using the Report Editor

Adding items to a report

You can add an item to the Report Items pane in any of the following ways:

Double-click the item in the Available Items pane to place it below the currently selected item in the Report Items pane
Drag the item from the Available Items pane and drop it at the desired position in the Report Items pane. If the pointer becomes a barred circle, that means the drop target is unauthorized. Note that you can drag and drop an item only when the Report Items pane already contains at least one item.
Right-click the item in the Available Items pane and select Add from the contextual menu

When you add an item to the Report Items pane, the item remains in the Available Items pane. You can insert the same item several times in the same report contents.

Notes:

Table of contents - When you insert a table of contents in a report, you do not need to have it followed by a page break because PowerDesigner automatically provides one.
Multi-selection - Press ctrl while selecting items with the Pointer tool, or use the shift key to select a continuous list of items.
Book item - When you add a book item to a report, you automatically add its dependent items. You can delete any that you do not need.
Package and composite object hierarchy - When you add a package or composite object book item to a report, you can select the Hierarchical Display command in the item contextual menu to display the package or composite object hierarchy in the generated report. You do not need to use this command when you generate for an HTML report, as HTML reports always provide a hierarchical display.
When you drag an item in the Report Items pane, you must choose a drop position. A box or a line is displayed, it indicates where the drop will occur. You can only drop the item when the barred circle becomes a pointer again.
While you drag an item over a book item - If a line is displayed, drop positions the item at the line and if a box around the book item is displayed, drop positions the item last in the book item.
If you want to add an item at the same level as a book item, press the alt key while you drag and drop the item.
While you drag an item over another item - If a line is displayed, drop positions the item at the line and if a box around the item is displayed, drop positions the item immediately after the item surrounded by the box.
Drag and drop between reports - You can drag and drop items between reports of the same type. If you simply drag and drop an item from one report to another without pressing any key, you move the item from one report to another. You can copy an item by pressing the ctrl key while dragging and dropping it. The report in which you want to drop the item must already contain at least one item.