Setting resource properties

When you click the Expand button on the Catalog Browser toolbar, the property list of the selected resource will be displayed. See Properties in the Catalog Browser for detailed explanation about properties of each resource.

By default, the properties in the Catalog Browser cannot be edited. To make the properties editable:

On the Catalog Browser toolbar, click the Options button (or click File > Options).
In the Options dialog, select Catalog in the Category box.
Uncheck the option Forbid editing data object properties, then click OK in the dialog to confirm the change.

Example: Specifying the display width of a field

You can define the default width of a field (DBField, formula, summary or parameter) by setting the Display Width property in the Catalog Browser. To do this:

Make sure that the property values are editable in the Catalog Browser.
Highlight the field in the Catalog Browser, right-click it and then select Properties from the shortcut menu.
In the Properties sheet, set the value for Display Width as required.

Notes:

If the Display Width value is not set in the Catalog Browser, it will be inserted with the width defined in the template. This is the width you selected when creating the report.
Assume that you have set the Display Width of a field, and you insert the field using the wizard or by dragging and dropping, its width may be adjusted according to the paper size. However, if you insert the field in design mode, the defined width will not be changed.

Setting default values for resources

You can set the default values for the properties of resources in the Catalog Browser, so that you do not need to set them each time you insert them into your report. To do this:

Select the resource with the properties you want to set.
Click on the Catalog Browser toolbar to show its properties.
In the Properties sheet, change the values of the properties to suit you requirements.

The properties listed in the Properties sheet are the default values for the selected resource. You can change the property values here, and the next time you insert the resource, the value you specify here will be used as a default value.

The resources that can have default values are table/view columns, formulas, parameters, summaries, SQL columns, procedure columns and user data source columns. The query column does not support this feature.