Producing Reports

You can print reports using the Print button on the major screens. Each screen has its own set of reports that are related to that screen's contents. With the exception of the FF&E Worksheet, the Design module reports for each form are typically a "list" format and a "detail" format that print all items in the list, whether you have actually used them or not (this is especially true for objects and specifications). There is more about using specific reports is in the next section.

Why the exception for the FF&E Worksheet? Remember that the Worksheet shows "what" goes "where" and "how many." The reports found on that screen are much more extensive and are based only on the items that are currently placed in rooms. That is, they show the official project contents, and are therefore the reports you will use for presentations to clients and for ordering reports. These reports have the largest variety of formats and the most extensive options for controlling how much information is printed. (Note: If you have the Design/Purchasing version, another extensive set of reports are on the Orders List and the Expediting screens.)

Design/Purchasing System: Please note that there is a separate section for purchasing activity reports and that the Purchasing module also has a Processing command that is used to produce project documents.

The basic procedure for printing a report is this:

Display the major form from which you want to report, remembering that all project presentation reports come from the FF&E Worksheet.
After calling the Report Setup form, you will first select a report from the list of those available in the "Report" drop-down list.

When the form first appears, it is "focused" on the report list and you can begin typing the first few characters of the report name to move closer. You can also use the "Search" tool just beneath the report list to limit the reports you see to a subset of the list.

If you are using a older "legacy" report, these will not appear in the list unless the "Include legacy reports" option is checked. The exception is that all saved report options will appear even if they are based on legacy reports (more about saving below). Legacy reports are not guaranteed to function correctly.

On the "General Options" tab, you can change the report's title or add a subtitle, select different groups of records to print, specify a page range and other basic options.

Note that if a query was in effect on the form from which you called the Report Setup screen, an active query will automatically be used to filter the report, unless you select the "All records" or "Current" options under "Filter."

You can also use a "quick filter" under the Filter options by selecting to print all records matching a key value in the "current" record's content (the available choices change in a logical way, based on which editing screen you are using). Since this option is based on the values associated with the currently highlighted data record, be sure you are on the desired item before you select the reporting setup. For instance, to print all items from a single vendor, move to any item from that vendor, then click on the Print... command button on the editing screen. When you select "Vendor" on the "Current:" option, only that vendor's data will print.

If you are printing a project report, you can set both an "Issued" and a "Revised" date to be printed on the report's title block area, using the "Design Project Dates" options.

If you set an "Issued" date, the project screen will automatically be updated. For the manual revision date, you can have FF&EZ calculate a date based on the latest date found on the Specifications Screen. A manual date can also be used to update the Project Screen's "Revised" date using the option below. Note that individual specification revision dates will still appear on reports that include them.

If a report has other specific options, they will appear on the "Report Options" tab. Be sure to check this section so that you understand what controls are available to change what appears on the report. This is especially important on "presentation" reports where it may be useful to adjust the level of detail being shown.

A common option for reports sorted by area and room or by vendor is to break to a new page when the area or vendor changes. Other options may control how much detail is shown on the report (for example, the "Illustration Sheet" reports can show anything from a very brief description to full ordering information).

You can change your printer selection with the Printer... button. If a 3rd-party "PDF printer" is installed on your computer, you can print to a PDF file, however we strongly recommend that you use FF&EZ's own [>PDF] command button (see below for more). For the currently selected printer, you can also access its "setup" with the Properties... button next to it.

Note! Do not change the orientation (portrait vs. landscape) of the printer when printing reports! Database reports are formatted to print within a specific layout, and changing the orientation will not produce desirable results.

All reports can be previewed. By using the Preview button. You can quickly see the overall effect of changes without having to print an entire report. Note: the preview function ignores the "Copies" and "Pages" options. If the preview window opens then closes without displaying anything, this is an indication that no data met the report's particular data criteria (normally, however, you should receive a message telling you this).

The Preview Window includes a menu bar with many useful tools, including the ability to use a "Find" tool to locate specific text and to export the report to other formats. You can select and print to any printer installed on your workstation (or the server, depending on your configuration). See the linked section (below) for more.

You must close the preview window prior to using any other functions in FF&EZ. This can be done by clicking on the large red [X] button on the Preview menu bar or by simply pressing the [Esc] key on your keyboard.

Click on Print to send the report to the currently selected printer or click on the [>PDF] button to create a PDF file. If the "Display PDF?" option is enabled, FF&EZ will attempt to open the file with your default PDF viewer. Note: To immediately view PDF files on a multi-user server, a PDF viewer must be installed or the default "open with" application for PDF files must be set to a web browser with this capability.

By default, all reports use Arial as the font, however, you can change the heading and body fonts to something else by using the Setup Form on the Startup Screen, where you can also add a company logo to the report format. Be aware, though, that not all fonts work well with formatted database reports, especially body fonts that are wider than anticipated in the original layout.

If your firm's "style" for specifications is to use all-caps, we highly recommend that you obtain and use a narrow font style ("Arial Narrow" is one). This allows you to use this style without the large amount of extra space that all-caps requires.

The last report that you preview or print and the settings for it are retained until you close the editing form from which you called the report setup form.

Please note: Some users have reported that fonts in both report previews and printed reports were displaying/printing at a large scale that did not fit within the print area. If this occurs, it is fixed by enabling the "high DPI" setting on the FF&EZ shortcut. See below for more.

Saving Report Options

If you find that you are constantly changing the same report option or report title when you print a certain report, you can save your preferred options, along with a default report title and subtitle, by using the Save report options button on the report setup form:

When you click on this button, the Save Report Options dialog box will appear. To save your options, simply give the report a new name (typically, just a meaningful variation on the original report name) and click on the Save button:

The name you choose can be

Completely different from the original, or...
...you can just add a suffix at the end that identifies what options are in effect ("Full Detail"), and/or...
...you can add a prefix that identifies it as a custom setting, which would have the effect of grouping all your custom report settings together in the report list. For instance "Michele: Quote Format" or simply "My Quote Format"

If you use a standard prefix or suffix, you can use the "Search" tool just below the report list to quickly display only the reports with those characters in the name.

Before you save the report, though, you have the option of saving an alternate title for the report. Normally, the title of a report is automatically set to the report name, unless an alternate title has been saved as part of the setup (or if you enter one manually). Since you must use a different name to save the report, you may want to enter a more "standard" title here also.

Other rules about this feature:

You cannot overwrite an FF&EZ base report name nor an original custom report name. The name you use to save report options must be unique and different from other reports.
Despite the point above, any "Alternate title" can be shared among more than one report. So you may have several variations in levels of detail saved for quotes, but all your quotes may have the same title printed on them.
You can save over your own existing custom options by selecting that saved report and saving it again with new options (or entering the same name in "Report name").
If a base report has a date option that is automatically filled in with a date (such as the current date), FF&EZ will not save the date as part of saved report options. It will save a blank date instead, so as to avoid saving a fixed date (which is normally not desirable).
At this point, boilerplate text is not affected by saving report options. That is, if a report has a boilerplate option, any text you enter will be used on all versions of the report.
If you are in a group of several FF&EZ users, it will be important for the group to decide how they will save reports (a standard way of naming them) and how many is "too many" to save. Otherwise, your report list may become cluttered and confusing.

Please note: After a reports update has been installed, it is important that you test your saved option sets to make sure they still work with the updated version of the report. Although it is infrequent, a report option may be occasionally change in order to enhance how the option works (for instance, changing from a "yes/no" checkbox to a multiple choice type). If you have any problems with an existing set of saved options, simply start with the base report again and save the desired options to the same name that you originally used to save options for the old report (replacing it).

If you have set up many saved option sets and need to remove those that are no longer needed, you can do so by highlighting one of them and clicking on the Delete saved options button next to the Save button. Note that this button is not enabled if you are currently on an FF&EZ base report or an original custom report. Deleting a set of saved options will never delete the report on which it is based.

Preview Tools

As of version 3.2.139, FF&EZ includes a more powerful set of tools for use in previewing reports. The new previewer is slightly slower than the "legacy" report engine, but this is because it generates thumbnails and allows you to search the preview for specific text. When the preview appears, you will see the toolbar (the exact shape and position may differ on your PC):

The tools shown are, in order:

Go to page - Move to the first page, previous page, a specific page number, the next page and the last page. Note that the [PgUp] and [PgDn] keys also move back and forward a page at a time.

Zoom Level

Page display - Show a single page, facing pages or four pages at a time. While viewing a preview, you can also switch between single, double and quad-page displays by pressing 1, 2 or 4 on the keyboard. Note: The two- and four-page options will not respond if the Zoom Level % is set too high or is set to "Whole page."

Show miniatures - This tool (with a simple magnifying glass as its icon) displays an array of thumbnail images that you can use to got to a specfic page in the report (by clicking on the thumbnail).

Find - (Magnifier icon over a page icon) Use this tool to search the previewed report for occurrences of any text you enter. A pop-up into which you can type the search text will appear when you click on this button. You can move from one instance to the next with controls that will appear next to the Find button after you use it the first time.

Printer - You can select the destination printer for the report here.

Copies - Multiple copies can be produced

Save report - Allows you to save the report output to several different file formats. Note: Complicated report formats may not produce a "clean" representation of the printed report for formats like Excel or HTML. You may have to do further formatting for these format types.

Note: This method of saving a previewed report does not "remember" the last folder you used to create a PDF file. If you plan to print multiple reports to project-related folder, we recommend you use the [>PDF] command instead. More information is below.

Printing preferences - Allows you to change the settings for the selected printer (however, as noted elsewhere, changing the page orientation will produce unsatisfactory results).

Print report - Sends the report to the selected printer (not needed for the Save report option).

Configurations - Allows you to set certain options related to the Save report command and some general options. Note: As of this writing, these affect all users in a multi-user system.

Note: If the report preview always opens in a small window, try using this option to set the window to "Normal" instead.

Close report - Closes the preview and returns to FF&EZ (you can also press the [Esc] key).

PDF Format

Like all Windows programs, FF&EZ can use a PDF printer if you have one installed on your computer.

However, we recommend that you use FF&EZ's built-in PDF export function, which is called directly with the [>PDF] command button and is also available under the Save report option on the advanced Preview menu. The command has the advantage of automatically naming the PDF files with a suitable name (which you can override). This command button also "remembers" the last folder you used and recognizes the default "PDF Output Folder" that can be specified on the Setup Form.

Important: PDF files generated using 3rd party printers may be in the PDF "image" format, in which the text cannot be highlighted or edited. We strongly recommend that you use FF&EZ's own [>PDF] command button to produce efficient PDF files.

If you want to use a 3rd-party PDF printer, you can get them from a variety of sources at costs ranging from free to several hundred dollars. Popular PDF printers are:

PDF995 (www.software995.com )

BullZip PDF (www.bullzip.com )

Foxit Reader PDF Printer ( )

Amyuni PDF Converter (www.amyuni.com )

Adobe Acrobat (www.adobe.com )

High DPI Compensation / Enlarged Fonts

Starting with Windows Vista, a few users reported that fonts in both report previews and printed reports were displaying/printing at a large scale that did not fit within the print area. If you see unusually enlarged fonts on a computer's report output from within FF&EZ, it is fixed by enabling the "high DPI" compatibility setting on the FF&EZ shortcut. Do that with this procedure:

Locate the FF&EZ icon on the Desktop.
Right-click the icon and choose the "Properties" option on the pop-up menu and appears
Select the "Compatibility" group, then the options shown below. Note: some versions of Windows present options that look somewhat different, but the "DPI" setting is th key.