Header & footer

The header and footer in business reports provide a consistent way to identify the content, promote the company's brand, and ensure that important information is easily accessible. Inforiver Premium table offers powerful header & footer customization capabilities and can be used to show charts, KPIs, images, and text.

Below is a sample report created using Premium Table. You can see a header with a KPI card, a report title, and an overlapping bar chart. The footer contains the company logo and page number.

Customized header and footer

Let's take a look at how to create a report like the one shown above. The header & footer module is organized as follows:

  1. Overview of the header and footer, including options and presets - An overview of the toolbar, header and footer sections, presets, basic interactions, and basic customization options are explained in the section below.

  2. Text - Adding formatted text to the header and footer and using presets like page number, date field, etc.

  3. Images - Adding images from local files and organizational workspace.

  4. Charts - Adding various types of charts and associated customization options.

  5. KPI cards - Adding customizable KPI presets.

Let's look at the header/footer interface. The table below has a default header added.

1.1. Editing a header

STEP 1: Click on Header & Footer in the Design tab. Alternatively, hover over the header and select Edit from the hamburger menu.

Header and footer option

STEP 2: The header ribbon is enabled. You can see there is a default header that shows the fields added and the scaling.

Header and footer ribbon

The blue box is called the container. Currently, there is only one cell in the container with the default fields and scaling. Containers can be split into many sections and used to create elements like Text, Image, Chart, and KPI. We'll be covering container customizations in later sections.

1.2. Hiding the header

Select the Hide Header option from the context menu if you do not wish to display the header.

Hide Header

The header is now hidden as shown below. You can display it again at any time by selecting the Show Header option from the context menu.

1.3. Resetting the header

To remove any additional customizations and restore the default header, select the Reset option from the header context menu.

Reset header to default

To edit the footer, click on Edit from the footer menu.

Editing a footer

The container for the footer opens as shown below. It has an empty container. A container can be divided into many sections, each of which can contain elements such as text, images, charts, and KPIs. We'll be covering container customizations in later sections.

Footer container

To hide the footer, select the Hide Footer option from the context menu.

Hide footer

The footer is hidden. To display the footer, click on Show Footer from the header context menu.

Click on Reset to reset any added customizations to the footer.

2. Creating and customizing cells

The header/footer containers can be split into cells and customized further. Let's first look at creating and managing cells.

STEP 1: Let's edit the header by clicking the Edit in the context menu. You can also edit the header by clicking the Header & Footer button in the Design ribbon.

Editing the header

In this section, we have used the example of headers but all of these properties apply to footers as well.

STEP 2: Click on the settings icon ⁣ . Then, choose Split. You can select the appropriate option to split the container.

  • The Split panel above option splits the container horizontally and adds a container at the top.

  • The Split panel below option splits the container horizontally and adds a container at the bottom.

  • The Split panel to the left option splits the container vertically and adds a container to the left.

  • The Split panel to the right option splits the container vertically and adds a container to the right.

STEP 3: The container height can be adjusted by hovering on the bottom border and dragging the handle. The width can be adjusted by dragging the handle that is enabled on hovering over the cell border.

STEP 4: Click the plus icon to insert elements like Text, Image, Chart, and KPI card, which are explained in subsequent sections.

Insert element

STEP 5: When you click on the + icon, you will be prompted to either replace the contents of the current container or insert a new container.

If you choose the Replace the selected Container option, the chosen element (chart, text, KPI, images) will be inserted into that container.

Replace selected container
Chart inserted into the chosen container

You can also choose to insert a new container to the right/left/top/bottom of the existing container. In the second image, notice how the chart is inserted in a new container below the currently selected container.

Insert new container option
New container insrted below selected container

STEP 6: After inserting an element, you can use the container controls to copy/paste the contents of a cell. You can also reset or delete a cell.

Additional options

3. Inserting dates/symbols/page numbers/measure values

Use the Insert dropdown menu to add the predefined text elements listed below:

  • Page Numbers: Supported formats 'Page X of Y', 'Page X/Y', 'Page X'. You can use the page numbers in the header to traverse the report.

  • Date: Select from the different supported formats

  • Symbols: Insert symbols denoting trademark or copyright or choose an emoji.

  • Data Field: Select any dimension or measure. The dimension values and measure totals are displayed in the header.

Types of elements
Inserting pre-defined text elements in the header

The image below shows various predefined text elements inserted in the header.

Page numbers/ dates/ symbols and data fields inserted

4. Presets

Before looking at creating header/footer elements from scratch, let's see how to leverage presets to insert header/footer in a single click.

4.1. Header preset

STEP 1: In the Header & Footer tab, expand the Type dropdown menu and select Presets > Header. A side panel opens up as shown below. Choose any of the presets and click 'Proceed' in the warning message.

Header presets

STEP 2: You can see that the header has been updated. These can be further customized but for now, let's go ahead with the preset. Click on Close editor to apply the preset.

Applying a header preset

If you choose a KPI preset, any selections made in the KPI explorer will be reflected in the header as well.

KPI explorer selection reflected in presets

Inforiver also offers a number of footer presets with page numbers, report titles, logos, etc.

STEP 1: To display the footer, select Show Footer from the header context menu. The default footer displays the current date.

Footer enabled

STEP 2: You can open footer presets either from the footer context menu or navigate to the Header & Footer ribbon > Expand the Type dropdown > Select Footer from the Presets section. A side panel opens with a list of the available presets. Select a preset and click Proceed in the warning pop-up. Click Close Editor to apply the changes.

Footer presets

STEP 3: The footer displays the page number by default. You can disable the Inforiver pagination using the Pagination toggle from the context menu.

Inforiver pagination and footer pagination

5. Cell and container customizations

All cells regardless of the type (Text, Image, etc.) can be formatted using the Cell and Margin sections of the Header & Footer toolbar. The header/footer containers can be formatted using the Container section.

Multiple cells can be selected using Ctrl + Click and formatting can be done in one shot. In the Basic customization section, we have used the example of headers but all of these properties apply to footers as well.

5.1. Cell

Using the options in this section, you can align the contents, apply fill, border or shadows, and more.

Cell customization options

a) Horizontal/Vertical align - Contents in a cell can be aligned horizontally and vertically as shown below.

Alignment options

b) In addition to using the handles, you also have an option in the toolbar to split the container or cells.

Split cell/container

c) On selecting two cells, you can swap them by using the 'Swap container' option.

Swap cells

d) Fill - Fill color can be applied to one or more cells by using the color picker.

Fill color for cells

e) Shadows can be applied to cells as shown below.

Shadow for cells

f) Borders - Borders can be applied for cells, you can set the weight, corner radius and choose a color.

Custom borders

5.2. Container

The following options are available for the header/footer containers - Appearance and Margin.

Appearance and margin

a) Styles: You can apply a border to the container by selecting the Appearance>Styles option. You can specify the border color and thickness from the Header Appearance dialog box.

Header border
Border applied to header

b) Container inner controls: The container controls are removed if this option is enabled.

Container controls

d) Ruler: You can see rulers on the top and left of the container. It shows the x and y coordinates for any point within the container.

Ruler

e) Position: You can change the position of the header and place it on the right or left side.

f) Margin: Top, bottom, right, and left margins can be applied to cells as shown in the below image.

In the next section, we'll be covering adding formatted text in the header/footer.

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