iReport Ultimate Guide - Nimsoft Library

iReport Ultimate GuideTable 5-1Formatting Tools, continuedIcon Tool DescriptionMultipleselect?Vert. Space→RemoveAdapt to parentRemoves the horizontal space among elements by moving them to theleftIncreases the size of the element to fit the size of its container (a band,a cell or a frame)√Adapt to parent width Increases the width of the element to fit the width of its container (aband, a cell or a frame)Adapt to parent height Increases the height of the element to fit the height of its container (aband, a cell or a frame)Organize as a tableAligns the selected elements by their tops and makes equal thehorizontal space between them5.1.2 Managing Elements with the Report InspectorThe Report Inspector shows the complete report structure. The root node represents the page; you can select it to modify all thegeneral report properties, as we have seen in the previous chapter. The following nodes are used for the style, the parameters,the fields and the variables and other report objects if present (like subdatasets).After these nodes there are the bands. Each band contains the elements. Container elements (like frames) can have otherelements represented as subnodes. The order of the elements in the Inspector is important because it is the z-order (the positionfrom the depth point of view). In other words, if an element precedes other elements in the Inspector view, it will be printedbefore them. If an element overlaps some predecessors, it will cover them.Please note that some exporters (like the HTML exporter) do not support overlapping elements, so they are skipped during therendering; at other times you can have two or more overlapped elements and print only one of them, using the print whencondition; this is a simple trick to print different content-based on a condition.To change the z-order, you can move the elements by dragging them in the Inspector, or you can use the Move Down andMove Up menu items. Remember that elements on top of the list are printed first, so to bring an element to front, you need tomove it down in the list.All the elements can be copied and pasted, except for charts and crosstabs. When an element is pasted, it keeps the top/leftcoordinates used in its previous container (a band, a cell or a frame). If the new container is smaller than the previous one, youmay need to adjust the element position since it could be outside the new container’s bounds.The Report Inspector allows you to select elements inside the report even if those elements are not visible in the designer oreven if they are hard to select due to the complexity of the report.5.1.3 Basic Element AttributesAll the elements have a set of common properties, or attributes; they are presented in the element properties view (as shownearlier in Figure 5-1). These attributes concern information about element positioning on the page. The following tabledescribes the available attributes.Figure 5-10 shows how iReport positions an element relative to the band to which the element belongs (or, more broadly, toits container). The band width is always equal to the document page width minus the left and right margins; its height canchange depending on the type of band and the contained elements.70