Use the Arrange menu to control the layout of the components in your report. To use these options, select one or more components, then select the desired alignment option from the menu.
You can access all of these options by right-clicking (or control-clicking) a component or group of components.
Order options
The order options control how objects appear in front of or behind other object.
Bring forward—causes the selected component(s) to "take one step forward" in the display order.
Send backward—causes the selected component(s) to "take one step backward" in the display order.
Bring to front—causes the selected component(s) to appear in front of all the other components on the page.
Send to back—causes the selected component(s) to appear behind all the other components on the page.
Alignment and distribution options
The alignment options help you arrange components so they line up, either vertically or horizontally. Select 2 or more components, then choose the horizontal or vertical alignment axis (top, bottom, right, left, center, etc).
Use the distribution options to adjust the amount of space vertically and horizontally between 3 or more components. This option uses the positions of the leftmost and rightmost components (for horizontal distribution), and the topmost and bottommost components (for vertical distribution) as "anchor points." It then moves the selected components so they are evenly spaced in the specified direction.
Use the alignment options to first align your components horizontally or vertically. Then, while those objects are still selected, use the matching distribution options to space them evenly apart.
Make Report-Level / Make Page-Level
When you first create a component (i.e., a chart, text box, shape, or image), it only exists in the page in which you create it. You can have a component appear on every page in a report by making it report-level.
To reverse this, use the Make Page-Level option (which only appears for report-level components). This makes a report-level component local to the current page.
For example, to have your report title appear and a date range control appear on every page of your report, add those components to page 1 of your report. Then select them all and click Arrange > Make Report-Level.
Group / Ungroup
Grouping components has several benefits:
- It makes it easer to move them as a unit and to preserve their arrangement. For example, you might have a row of scorecards arranged just the way you want them. Creating a group with these components will prevent you from inadvertently jiggling just one of them. One for all and all for one!
- You can edit the DATA tab options of grouped components as a unit. For example, you can group a set of charts and change their data source. You can also configure the default date window and set filters on a group of components.
- When you include a report control, like a date range control or dimension filter, in a group of charts, that control applies just to the charts in that group.
To break up a group, right-click the group and select Ungroup.