Define Rulers

A ruler is simply a different view of a report. When you create a ruler you are manipulating the data of the report to a format that you require or prefer.

One of the main reasons for defining rulers is the switch from 132-character width paper-based reports to an 80-character screen display. Of course, users can scroll right and left but this can become cumbersome and users may lose their place and become frustrated. Using the ruler option, we can reformat the page to bring all relevant information into view simultaneously.

Some of the options that are available when creating different views of a report are:

• Fix lines as Header or Footer lines (so they do not disappear if you scroll down).
• Insert Overlay lines (for example, to provide eye-catchers).
• Exclude lines from a report, such as redundant Header information.
• Cut and paste the report, that is, the ability to rearrange and/or exclude columns of the report.
• Color selected columns of the report.
• Highlight selected columns of the report.
• Freeze selected columns of the report (so they do not disappear if you scroll to the right).
• Include certain lines of a report based on the specification of string values, including logical operators such as Greater Than/Less Than criteria.
• Exclude certain lines of a report based on the appearance of specified strings, including logical operators such as Greater Than/Less Than logic.
• Color and/or highlight lines or strings based the specification of string values.

Different rulers can be defined for viewing and printing. There is no limit to the number of rulers that can be defined for a report. No physical data of the original report can be physically changed by creating rulers.