Adding Visual Elements

When simple visual elements, like lines and borders, are added to basic reports, it improves the professional look and readability of the report.

Lines

With the report displayed in the Report Design window:

Select Insert > Design Shape > Horizontal Line from the main menu.
In the Line Properties window, select the color, line style, and thickness. If you check the Double Line box, you will not have a choice of style of thickness since a double line is a one-point solid line by default. You may, however, change the color of a double line just as you would any other line style.19
Click OK.
In the Report Design window, note that your cursor has changed from the standard arrow to a Design Shape insertion marker, allowing you to click and drag/draw the line in the desired position. If you place the insertion marker over a portion of the report in which you cannot place the line, the cursor will change to indicate this. Newly created lines have a minimum default length. If you click a region to place the line, CDD will draw it at this default length. Once you have drawn the line in the desired position, your cursor will change back to the standard arrow.

The newly created line can now be moved, lengthened, or even deleted from the report design:

To move the line, position your cursor over any portion of the line. The cursor will change from the standard arrow to a multi-directional arrow, indicating that the object can be moved nearly anywhere within the current region. To move the line, simply click and drag it to a new location.
To resize the line, position the cursor over one end of the line. The cursor will change from the standard arrow to a double arrow. To lengthen or shorten the line, simply click and drag the end of the line to the desired length.
To delete a line, select the line by clicking anywhere on it (a line is highlighted in blue when selected), then select Edit > Delete from the main menu.

Rectangles are added to the report design in the same way lines are added.

Select Insert > Design Shape > Rectangle from the main menu.
In the Rectangle Properties window, select color, line style and thickness. In addition to these characteristics, you have control over how many "sides" the rectangle will have. For example, to highlight a total in a budget report, you might choose to draw a three-sided rectangle (left, right, and bottom) around this field. In this way, the total is highlighted but still appears visually "attached" to the other numeric values in the report. To determine the number of "sides" of the rectangle, simply turn on or off the left, right, top, and bottom options.
Click OK. You are returned to the Report Design window.
Your cursor is changed from the standard arrow to the Design Shape insertion marker, allowing you to draw the rectangle in the desired position. If you place the insertion marker over a portion of the report in which you cannot insert a rectangle, the cursor will change to indicate this. Newly created rectangles have a minimum default size. If you click a region to place the rectangle, CDD will insert the rectangle at this default size.

The newly created rectangle can now be moved, re-sized, or deleted from the report design:

To move the rectangle, position your cursor over any portion of the rectangle. The cursor will change from the standard arrow to a multi-directional arrow, indicating that the object can be moved anywhere within the current region. To move the rectangle, simply click and drag it to a new location.
To resize the rectangle, position the cursor over one corner of the rectangle. The cursor will change from the standard arrow to a double arrow. To resize the rectangle, simply click and drag the corner of the rectangle to the desired position.
To delete an unwanted rectangle, select the rectangle by clicking anywhere on it, then select "Edit, Delete" from the main menu. You will know that you have selected the rectangle when it is highlighted in blue.

Double-click on the element you want to adjust.
In the Report Object Properties window is displayed. It contains three tabs: General, Line Properties, and HTML. The line or rectangle can be adjusted, made lighter or heavier, for example, through the Line Properties tab. The choices available through the Line Properties tab are exactly the same as in the properties windows you used when you first created the line or rectangle. The HTML tab is used when your report is to be made available through a special feature of Click, Drag, and Drill™ called cdd.online.
Make your new selections in the Line Properties tab and click the OK button.