Lines¶

A report can contain two types of lines:

1. Lines within a section
2. Lines across multiple sections

Lines Within a Section¶

Lines within a section can be either horizontal or vertical. You can insert a line using the Insert menu or the Line button on the toolbar. The draw direction determines whether the line is horizontal or vertical.

• To adjust the direction manually, use the Width setting on the Position tab:
• A width of zero creates a vertical line.
• Line properties such as style, width, and color can be modified in the Line tab of the Field Properties dialog.
• The following options are available on the Common tab:
• Suppress
• Anchor
• The Variable Height option (available only for vertical lines) allows the line to grow dynamically if the section height increases.
• The object order within the section determines whether the line appears above or below other objects.

Note: Options like vertical/horizontal alignment and text rotation do not apply to lines.

Converting the section-based line to a line that can span multiple sections can be done via the line context menu option "Span multiple sections". The object will be removed from the objects in the section and placed inside the report explorer node labeled "Lines and Boxes Over Sections".

Lines Across Sections¶

Lines that span multiple sections begin in one section (such as a page header or group header) and end in another (such as a page footer or group footer). These lines are always vertical.

• The width setting on the Position tab is not applicable.
• Line properties (style, width, color) are controlled via the Line tab in the Field Properties dialog.
• The Suppress option on the Common tab is available.
• Variable Height is always applied for these lines, as they must adjust dynamically with the height of the sections they span.

Note: Vertical/horizontal alignment and text rotation settings are not applicable to lines across sections.

Lines across sections are drawn before all other objects in the report and therefore appear behind them. In the Report Explorer, these lines are grouped under a node labeled “Lines and Boxes Over Sections.”

Converting the line that was created to go across sections to a line that needs to be used inside a section can be done via the line context menu option "Span multiple sections" after reducing the height of the line to stay inside the boundaries of the starting section.