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Templates allow you to store all of your different customized layouts. Each template holds a Report Master (go to Report Master Overview for more information), one or more Page Masters (go to Page Masters for more information), one or more layouts(go to Layout Masters for more information), and one or more Styles (go to About Styles for more information).
When you create a new report, you must select a template. A template can be applied to any number of reports. Templates do not need to be created from the bottom up; Forsta Reportal offers a number of default templates that can be used “as is,” or you can copy one and edit it to meet your requirements. You can import templates from other Forsta Plus servers as XML files (go to Importing a Template Definition for more information), and you can also save a report as a template if you have modified the report, page master, layout master and/or styles and wish to save it for future use (go to Saving a Report as a Template for more information).
Note: Every time you make a change to a page master, a table or chart layout etc. the template will change. If you wish to create several reports that look the same; i.e. use the same template, the easiest method is to create the first report and set it up as you wish, then duplicate that report (go to Duplicating a Report for more information) and change the data source (go to Replacing a Data Source for more information).
An example of the Reportal Home page, including the "Recent Templates" section, is shown below.
Figure 1 - Example of the Reportal Home page
To access a template for editing, click on it in the Recent Templates list.
Template Properties
The template has a Properties page . To open this page, while the template Page Editor is open, go to the Template > Properties menu command.
Figure 2 - The template Properties page
- Name – the name of the template. Here you can edit the template name as required.
- Use BitStream Files – check this box if you want reports based on this template to use BitStream Files as default.
- Template Languages – click the … button to open the Report Languages window. Here you set the languages for the template. Reports based on this template will then use the selected languages as default. Note that you can change the languages for the individual reports, in the reports.
When you have made changes to the properties, click Save to save them.