To access the Report Style Properties window, press the Ctrl+P key combination or use the Report Style > Modify Properties menu item.

This window has 3 tabs: General, Records Layout and Paper, Printer, Margins.

General

This tab contains general report style properties.

• Report style name - this field defines the style name. This name will be used for selecting the report style before printing. 
• Use this report style "by default" to print... - if this option is enabled, this report will be used by default for printing records of this type.
• Don't allow to select this style from the preview list - if this check box is selected, you will be able to use this style at printing only if the "Print Records" action is used in the script and this style is specified there explicitly.

Group and Sort

This tab allows setting up report sorting and records grouping.

Group records by

This option allows selecting the field by which records will be grouped.

The view of the Record Area in Report Style Editor will change, as it will have additional areas for the group name and for the group sub-total:

• All information above the first blue line (place sub-group header here) will be printed only if the previous and the current records have different values in the field selected for grouping. In this case, when orders are returned, this field will contain the client name (Client).
• All information below the second blue line (place sub-total here) will be printed only if the subsequent and the current records have different values in the field selected for grouping. In this case, when orders are returned, this field will contain the amount of orders for each client. 

To calculate the sub-total for a group, use Formula Editor and functions subMathOp and subRecN.

At printing, this report will look as follows:

If the "Print each group on a new page" check box is selected, in our example we will get two pages instead of one - one for "John Tompson", the other one for "Sid Forest".

Note: activating grouping does not imply that records will be sorted by the selected field. If you don't want to carry out sorting every time before printing, set it up in the report properties (see below).

Sort before printing

When this option is selected, records will be sorted in the order you have indicated. If they were sorted before (for example, by means of a query), the previous sorting order will be lost .

Records Layout

On this tab you can define how the records will be located on the sheet.

• Use the 'report title' area as a title page. - if this option is enabled, a title page will be added to the report. That is, the first page of the report will contain only the content of the 'report title' area.
• Print only one record on each page. - if this option is enabled, each page will contain only one record, otherwise the program will automatically break records into pages due to the columns settings.

Columns

With the program you can print columns in two different modes: top to bottom and from left to right:

Printing from left to right is available only if the records to be printed are of the same vertical size. As a rule, records being printed are of different sizes if the record area comprises elements with the Fit height to text size property.

If you select printing from top to bottom, records may have a different size. Also, if a record does not fit on one page, it will be automatically split into several records (see the picutre).

Top to bottom printing is recommended when you print large texts (for example, letters), or when printing into a table. Left to right printing is preferable for data of a fixed size, for example, business cards or images.

Paper and Printer Tab

On this tab you can select and set up the printer that will be used for printing the current report.

• Get Information - click this button to get information about the printer that will be used for printing the report.
• Configure Printer and Paper - click this button to select the printer to print the report. For each report you can select a separate printer and individual printing properties. For example, invoices can by default be printed on a laser printer, annual reports - on a color bubble-jet printer, and letters on special paper. Also, you can set up the printer right before printing by clicking the Printer... button in the Print Preview... window.
• Margins - in this window you can specify the margins from paper edges when printing. The margins are not displayed for editing the report in Report Style Editor, but they can be viewed during the print preview. The measuring units can be changed in the Report Stlye Editor Properties window (Tools > Options or Ctrl+O).