ReportWorks Quick Tour Soft-docs The purpose of the following quick tour is to provide a general overview of the ReportWorks commands and setup procedures. This tour does not go into detail about any of ReportWorks' features. In fact, the example used here is quite simple. The tour is presented in tutorial style so you can follow along on your computer if desired. The AppleWorks file used in this tour is called Properties and is on the Examples disk. Take a moment to look at this file with the AppleWorks database. The file holds information about real estate properties and might be similar to something used by a real estate broker. What we'll do in this example is print a listing of certain properties and their costs. We'll use formulas to calculate tax and totals automatically. We'll then embellish the report by adding headers and footers. Finally, we'll make suggestions for more complex examples that you can try on your own. STARTING ReportWorks Since the AppleWorks file is already created and full of sample files, we need only use ReportWorks to create the report. Place the ReportWorks boot (or Examples) disk into drive 1 and turn the computer on. Switch this disk with the program disk when prompted. The ReportWorks main menu appears. DESIGNING THE REPORT Select the 'add files to the desktop' command and then select the 'make a new reportworks file' command. The new file you are creating is the report itself; call it Properties List and press return. The design screen is now in view. Use the arrow keys to move around the page. SELECT PAGE SIZES The first thing to do is select the desired page sizes by entering the (OPEN-Apple)-P command. You will see options for various parts of the report. Using the TAB key, highlight the ENTRY SIZE option and press return to change the number to 1. You've just told ReportWorks that each entry in the body of the report will be one line long. These one-line entries will fill the pages of the report (which are now set at 66 lines, or letter sized paper). Press ESCAPE to return to the design page. Notice that the entry area has changed to reflect the new entry size. DRAW FIELDS Using the arrow keys, place the cursor in the leftmost corner of the entry area and enter the (OPEN-Apple)-F command. This sets a field on the page. To make the field larger, hold the (OPEN-Apple) key and tap the RIGHT ARROW until the desired length is reached. Make this field 15 characters long. Press RETURN again when finished. Draw another field, approximately ten characters long to the right of this field, and still another ten character field to the right of that one. DEFINING THE FIELDS We'll now tell each field where to find its information. Move the cursor to the first field and press (OPEN-Apple)-F. Notice that the field is now highlighted, showing that it is selected. Now, enter the (OPEN-Apple)-D command and the options shown appear at the top of the screen: ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------- Field Name : F1 Source : Formula Type : Text Format : Left Justify Formula : ============================================================ =================== Here you can define characteristics of each field in the report. Change this field's name by pressing RETURN and typing the name "LOCATION". Press RETURN again when finished. Use the TAB key to highlight the SOURCE option; now press RETURN. You get a "drop down" menu of the available sources: Formula or File. Using the UP ARROW key, highlight the FILE option and press RETURN. You have just told ReportWorks that this field will look up in an AppleWorks file for its information. ReportWorks is now highlighting the words New File in another drop down menu. Since you have not yet created any file lookups, New File is the only option - later, your file lookups will appear in this menu. Press RETURN to continue. ReportWorks now asks: Use AppleWorks file ______________________________________as master file. and the words "Change Disks" are highlighted in a drop down menu. Typically, ReportWorks would display all available AppleWorks files in this drop down menu. However, since it found no files on the ReportWorks disk, it asks you to change the disk to one that contains the AppleWorks files. SELECTING FILES (Changing the Prefix) Place the Examples disk (side 1) in the drive and press RETYRN (if you have two drives, use Drive 2 for the Examples disk). Now enter this prefix: /EXAMPLES and press RETURN. You can also enter #1 or #2 to select the disk in the respective drive. (for when you forget the prefix). Now ReportWorks displays all the available AppleWorks files on the data disk. Select the field PROPERTIES. ReportWorks now asks: Retrieve category ___________________________________ and displays a list of all available categories in the Properties file. Highlight the category ADDRESS and press RETURN. Now press ESCAPE and save the changes you have just made. DEFINING THE SECOND FIELD You have now defined the first field in the report. Let's do the same thing with the next field. We'll access the same AppleWorks file, but this time we'll extract the "PRICE" category instead of the "ADDRESS" category. Since we're using the same file reference over again, we won't have to repeat all of the steps. Move the cursor to the second field in the report and press (OPEN-Apple)-F to highlight it. Now enter the (OPEN-Apple)-D command. First change the name of this field to be "PRICE". Next, highlight the TYPE option with the TAB key and press RETURN. Just as before, select FILE as the source. Notice that the name of the previous file reference appears in the drop down menu along with the words New File. In this case, instead of selecting a new file reference, will use the previous one by selecting the name PROPERTIES. Now you can go back and change the category being retrieved by highlighting the category name with the TAB Key and pressing RETURN. Select the category PRICE from the list. Press ESC to save the changes. What we have done is set-up two fields in the report to draw separate information from the same file - the Properties File. DEFINING THE THIRD FIELD (Using a Formula) Will use a formula for the last field in the report. This field will calculate slaes tax on the price of the property. Move the cursor to the last field and press (OPEN-APPLE)-F. Now use the (OPEN-APPLE)-D command, tab to the TYPE option and press Return. Select NUMBER as the type. You might also want to change this field's name to somehing like "WITHTAX". Now tab to the Source option and press Return. Select Formula as the source for this field. Tab over to the Formula option and press Return to begin entering the formula. Type the following: PRICE *1.06 This formula takes the value of the PRICE field and multiplies it by 1.06 to add a 6% sales tax. Press ESC to save these new field definitions. SAVING THE REPORT Save this report by pressing the ESC key. You should see a card menu informing you that changes have been made. Here you can either save or discard the changes. For this example save the report design. Be sure to save the report onto the same disk the Appleworks files used in the report (The EXAMPLES Disk). BUILDING THE REPORT To create this report select the 'WORK WITH ONE OF THE FILES ON THE DESKTOP' command from the main menu and select the PROPERTIES LIST file from the data disk. You can now create a report of all the entries in the Properties file; simply enter the (OPEN-APPLE)-B (BUILD) command. When te report is completely built, you can use the arrow keys to look it over on the screen, or the (OPEN-APPLE)-P command to print it. You can use the (OPEN-APPLE)-C command to clear the report in case you want to start over. You can also enter the (OPEN-APPLE)-R command to go back and redesign the report. USING CRITERIA This last part of the quick tour show you how to view a report in many different ways using View criteria. There are many ways of using criteria. With the report currently on the screen, enter the (OPEN-APPLE)-V command. This takes you into the View criteria screen. Lets establish a simple criteria: Select option #1 EDIT THE CURRENT VIEW CRITERIA. Now type the following into the criteria box: PRICE < 100000 This criteria will generate a report with only those properties whose price is less than 100,000. Press RETURN when finished and save the criteria you entered. Soon, ReportWorks will complete the new report. Since it is a subset of the first report you created, ReportWorks will not take long to create it. TRY THIS Experiment with sorting the report. You can use fields in the report to sort by - just enter the (OPEN-APPLE)-V command when the report is in view. Now select option #4 to change the sorting. Try adding headers and footers to this report. Include the automatic page numbering function. (You'll need to use the OPEN-APPLE-R command to redesign the report). Try adding a second (Lookup) file to this Real-Estate report application. Add the spreadsheet file call TAXTABLES which stores the tax rate of every state in the country. (This file is on the /EXAMPLES Disk). Setup the report to lookup the approriate state tax percent depending upon which state the property is in. Then figure out tax for the property using the correct tax rate. HINT: You will need to add another field to the report. This field will hold the state of the property (Drawn from the Properties File). The value entered into this field can be used as match criteria for the spreadsheet file lookup. SUMMARY In summary, you can design almost any kind of report or form layout desired, using ReportWorks design features. The OPEN-APPLE-P (Page Setup) option let you establish various page sizes and entry areas for the design. Fields are created with the OPEN-APPLE-F command and are defined with the OPEN-APPLE-D command. Defintions include field names, sources of information (Formula or File), and more. Several fields can use the same file as a source of information or they can use several different files. Each file used as a source is enetered into a list where it can be used again for other fields. Building a report is simple. Just begin working with the report from the main menu, then establish any desired view criteria with the OPEN-APPLE-V command. After saving the criteria, ReportWorks automatically builds the report based on the criteria. If no criteria are desired, simply enter the OPEN-APPLE-B command to build the report.