Introduction
When working with Pixel Perfect Reports, efficient report development is crucial for maintaining consistency and speeding up the creation process. One powerful feature in Pixel Perfect Reports is the ability to export a report layout design to another report. This functionality not only saves time but also ensures that design standards and formatting are consistently applied across multiple reports. In this blog post, we’ll walk through the steps to export a report layout from one report to another in Pixel Perfect Reports.
Why Export Report Layouts?
Before diving into the how-to, let’s briefly discuss why you might want to export a report layout:
1. Consistency: Ensuring that multiple reports have a uniform look and feel, including fonts, colors, and layout.
2. Efficiency: Reducing repetitive design work when creating similar reports or templates.
3. Standardization: Applying corporate branding and design standards across various reports effortlessly.
Steps to Export a Report Layout Design
In the designer, click the 'Tools' main menu, then click the 'Export Layout Template' menu to open the Export Layout Template dialog.
Select the report you want to create a template for by clicking on it. Click the Next button.
Select the location you want to export the template to and click the Next button.
Enter a name for the template and click the Export button.
Steps to Import a Report Layout Design
In the designer, click the 'Tools' main menu, then click the 'Import Layout Template' menu to open the Import Layout Template dialog.
Navigate to the location of the template you want to import and mouse down on the template to select it. Click the Import button.
SSRS Support of Reports Template
SSRS report templates have many more constraints compared to Pixel Perfect Reports. This difference can be traced to the architectural differences between the two reporting tools. In SSRS, the report layout design is tightly coupled with its data source, meaning that the report template will include the data source of the original report. In contrast, the report templates in Pixel Perfect Reports do not carry the data source of the original report, giving users complete freedom to attach a completely different data source. As a result, report templates in Pixel Perfect Reports have a much wider range of applications than tools like SSRS, because their layout design is independent of data sources.