Modify Form Report Margins

You can use the Properties pane for a form report theme's top or bottom margin to define the margin height as well as default appearance settings for objects added to the margin.

To modify the properties of a form report margin, with a form report theme selected in the Form Designer click a margin to select TopMargin1 or BottomMargin1 of the workspace area. The selected margin's available properties load in the Properties pane.

Margin Properties

If a property can be reset, the check box will be filled in black. To reset a property, click the check box to the far right of the property name line.

Resetting a Property

When you click on a Property, a definition of the property displays at the bottom of the screen. For example, Background Color has been selected in the following image. The definition for Background Color is shown in the pane below Properties. Use these definitions to understand each of the properties listed in this pane.

Property Descriptions

Appearance properties. When a margin's default appearance settings are configured, any Control object added to the margin will inherit its property settings from the margin's appearance properties and any appearance properties defined in the margin's Properties pane will override properties set in the form report theme. If the appearance properties for an object are defined in the object's Properties pane, any defaults set in the margin are ignored and the Control object's settings are used.

The following default appearance settings are available for the margin:

• Background Color — to change the default background color for a Control object added to the margin, select the Background Color drop-down. A grid of available and standard colors appears. Select a color from the grid or click More Colors to switch to the custom color selector and create a custom color by doing any of the following:

  • Select a color with the color slider and color field.

  • Enter a hexadecimal value in the field provided.

  • Select a color model in the drop-down provided and enter the following in the fields provided:

    • For RGB color model: Red (R), Green (G), Blue (B), and Alpha (A) values

    • For CYMK color model: Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y), and Black (K) values

    • For HSL color model: Hue (H), Lightness (L), Saturation (S), and Alpha (A) values

    • For HSB color model: Hue (H), Saturation (S), Brightness (B), and Alpha (A) values

  • Click to activate the color picker and move your mouse over a spot on your computer that has the color you wish to use. Click your mouse to select the color.

• Border Color — to change the default color of the border for a Control object added to the margin, select the Border Color drop-down. A grid of available and standard colors appears. Select a color from the grid or click More Colors to switch to the custom color selector and create a custom color (see Background Color).

• Border Dash Style — to change the default type of line used for a border of a Control object added to the form, select one of the following options from the Border Dash Style drop-down:

  • Solid : for a single solid line

  • Dash : for a consistent dashed line

  • Dot : for a consistent dotted line

  • Dash-Dot: for a line that alternates between dashes and dots

  • Dash-Dot-Dot: for a line that alternates between dashes and two dots

  • Double : for two solid lines

• Border Width — To change the default thickness for a border of a Control object added to the margin, enter a value in pixels in the Border Width text field.

• Borders — To determine what sides of a object will have borders by default, click the Borders drop-down and complete the following steps:

  • Click All to have borders on all sides of the objects added to the form.

  • Click None to not have any borders on the objects added to the form.

  • Click at the top, bottom, left, or right edge of the border drop-down to toggle whether the top, bottom, left, or right border is applied to objects added to the form

• Font — click the ellipsis (...) next to the Font field to open the Font window. Select a default font family, style, size, effect, and script for text-based objects added to the margin and click OK.

• Foreground Color — to change the default text color for text-based objects added to the margin, select the Foreground Color drop-down. A grid of available and standard colors appears. Select a color from the grid or click More Colors to switch to the custom color selector and create a custom color (see Background Color).

• Padding — to control the default amount of space between a Control object's contents and the border click the arrow next to Padding to expand the padding options. Enter values in pixels in the fields available.

• Text Alignment — to set the alignment of the object's text, select one of the following values from the Text Alignment drop-down: Top Left, Top Center, Top Right, Middle Left, Middle Center, Middle Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Center, Bottom Right, Top Justify, Middle Justify, and Bottom Justify.

Layout properties. Layout properties define the margin's height.

• Height — to define the margin's height for a custom paper size, enter a height in hundredths of an inch in the field provided.