WebFOCUS Online Help > Creating Compound Reports With Power Painter > Controlling Report Overflow and Position of Objects > Setting a Relative Position Between Objects in Power Painter

Setting a Relative Position Between Objects in Power Painter

How to:

Reference:

You can set a relative (vertical) relationship between objects. Similar to the flowing report option, you can select multiple report and graph objects and set a relationship. The following relationship options are available from the main toolbar, or from the Layout menu in Power Painter:

Relative positioning is determined by setting where a surrounding object's upper left corner is positioned relative to the lower left corner of the preceding primary object.

Note: There is currently no method of setting horizontal relationships.

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Procedure: How to Relate Surrounding Objects to a Report

A surrounding object can only be related to one flowing report. However, a flowing report can have multiple surrounding objects related to itself.

  1. Select a report or graph (surrounding) object from the Power Painter canvas.
  2. Hold down the Ctrl key while selecting a flowing report (primary) object that precedes or is above the first selected object.

    flowing report

    Note: The primary object is indicated by solid black squares around the edges, when selected. The surrounding object is indicated by clear squares around the edges, when selected.

  3. Set the relationship between the objects by selecting the Relate objects Relate objects button button from the main toolbar.

    Note: The relationship buttons are only available from the main toolbar when multiple objects are selected.

    An arrow appears on the canvas, indicating that the relationship has been set.

    In the following image, the graph is the surrounding object to the report.

    graph surrounding object

    Tip: To break the relationship, click the same surrounding objects using the Shift key and click the Relate objects button from the main toolbar. The arrow is removed and the relationship is broken.

  4. Run the report.

Note: If the document contains multiple reports, and the relationships have been set, the first report runs until it is complete, followed by the surrounding reports, at run time.

surrounding reports

Note: If the document contains a report and a graph, and the relationship has been set, the report runs until complete, followed by the graph, at run time.

report runs

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Reference: Rules for Setting Relationships Between Objects

The following rules apply when setting relationships between objects:

Setting Relationships

This sets a relative distance between the flowing report and a surrounding object. The surrounding object is rendered immediately following the end of a flowing report with the related distance between the end of the flowing report and the beginning of the surrounding object.

Fixed objects

A fixed object cannot be broken across a page break, it needs enough vertical space to fit on the last page of the flowing report.

Flowing object (reports)

If a surrounding object is another flowing report, then the required space does not need to be set. A flowing report can be broken across pages. The reporting server determines if there is enough room to begin rendering the surrounding flowing report.

Draw object

Relationships do not apply to draw objects such as images, lines, and text. Draw objects can be placed above flowing reports in a page layout, but draw objects placed below a flowing report should be placed outside of the bottom flow margin.

Setting a relationship between a report and a graph

If the overflow property of the report is set to flowing and there is no set relationship between the graph and report, then the report will overlap and display on top of the graph at run time. There is no way for Power Painter to automatically set relationships, so you must set the relationship between the report and the graph.

Note: A surrounding object can only be related to one flowing report; however, a flowing report can have multiple surrounding objects related to itself.

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