Form Designer
Overview
The Form Designer is where the output templates are designed, for example, the Quotation, Tax Invoice and Delivery Note forms you print and email (see Output).
- It is ReportBuilder, made by Digital Metaphors Corporation and included with BOS Professional. Its menus work as they do in Windows, not like the rest of BOS Professional.
- ReportBuilder has many more features than BOS Professional's forms need. This page only explains the parts used for BOS Professional's templates.
- A template is a ReportBuilder file with the extension .rtm.
QuickEasy sets up your standard templates. Contact support if you would like a template designed or changed for you.
For step-by-step instructions, see the Form Designer Tutorial.
Settings
User Settings
The defaults are the values for new databases and new users. Your database may have different values.
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| General > QuickEasy Form Designer - Access Allowed | Yes or No. Whether you can open the Form Designer. Without it, the message "Access denied." appears. | No |
How the Form Designer Works
The Form Designer does not ask you to save, and does not warn you about unsaved changes. The first time you save, use File > Save As… and select the template. Do not click Save before that: it may save your changes onto another template.
- The Form Designer opens the last document you previewed. To work on a template, first preview a document with it, for example, a Tax Invoice.
- To keep your changes, save them into the template with File > Save As… (see How to Change a Template).
- The data comes from the document you previewed, so the Preview tab shows that document with your changes.
Tabs Explained
| Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| Design | Where you change the template. |
| Preview | Shows the template with the data of the document you previewed. |
Form Sections Explained
Drag the grey bar with a section's name up or down to make the section smaller or bigger.
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Header | The top of each page, for example:
|
| Detail | The item lines, for example, the Description, Quantity, Unit Price and Total. The section repeats once for each line. |
| Footer | The bottom of each page, for example:
|
Menus Explained
These are the menu options you need for BOS Professional's templates.
| Menu | Description |
|---|---|
| File |
|
| Edit |
|
| View | Toolbars > Data Tree: shows the data tables and their fields on the right, so you can drag a field onto the form. |
| Report | Header and Footer: show or hide those sections. |
Icons Explained
Hold the mouse over an icon to see its name. These are the icons used most on BOS Professional's templates:
To place a field, click its icon, then click the form. Drag the field to move it, and drag the dots to resize it. The format toolbar sets the font, size, bold and alignment.
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| Select Object | Click a field to select it. |
| Label | Fixed text, for example, a heading such as "Quotation" or "Qty". |
| DBText | A field from the data, for example, the customer's name or a line's quantity. |
| DBImage | An image from the data, for example, the company logo. |
| DBRichText, DBMemo | Formatted or multi-line text from the data, for example, the masthead or an item's description. |
| SystemVariable | The date, time or page number. |
| Line, Shape | A line or a box. |
| Region | A block that keeps fields together, so they move to the next page together. |