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 offers powerful header & footer customization capabilities and can be used to show charts, KPIs, images, and text.
Below is a sample report created using Inforiver. You can see a header with a KPI card, report title, and a donut chart. The footer contains the company logo and page number.
The header & footer module is organized as follows:
Introduction - Overview of the toolbar, header & footer sections, presets, basic interactions, and basic customization options
Text - Adding formatted text and using presets like page number, data fields
Images - Adding images from local files and organizational workspace
Charts - Types of charts and customization options
KPI cards - KPI presets and customization options
Let's first take a look at the header/footer interface.
STEP 1: Click on Header & Footer in the Design tab. Alternatively, hover over the header and select Edit from the hamburger menu.
STEP 2: The Header & Footer ribbon is enabled. You can see there is a default header that shows the fields added and the scaling.
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 cells and used to create elements like Text, Image, Chart, and KPI. We'll be covering container customizations in later sections.
Hiding the header
Select the Hide Header option from the context menu if you do not wish to display the header. You can display it again at any time by selecting the Show Header option from the context menu.
Resetting the header
You can remove customizations and restore the default header by selecting the Reset option from the header context menu.
The header/footer containers can be split into cells and customized further. Let's first look at creating and managing cells.
STEP 1: Go to the edit mode by clicking the Edit in the context menu. You can also edit the header by clicking the Header & Footer button in the Design ribbon.
In this section, we have used the example of headers but all of these properties apply to footers as well.
STEP 2: Click the Settings icon to open the header options, then select Split Dropdown to view the split options.
On selecting the Split panel to the right option, notice that a new cell is inserted to the right of the existing content.
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 which are covered in subsequent sections.
If you are using variable controls in your report, you can insert them in the header. Learn more about variables in Inforiver Matrix.
This feature is currently available only in Reporting Matrix.
You can insert and set values for all the variables defined in your report directly into the header. Simply select the "Variables" option from the Insert Element dropdown within the header container. The container on the left side holds all the variables defined in this sample report.
You can also display individual variable values using the Insert dropdown. Let's consider this report with variables defined.
Select the variable from the Variables section of the Insert dropdown.
The variable value modifications made in the variables panel will be reflected in the header.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The image below shows various predefined text elements inserted in the header.
Before looking at creating header/footer elements from scratch, let's see how to leverage presets to insert header/footer in a single click.
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.
The image below shows the header preset options in the Reporting Matrix, which has row filter and column filter options to display row and column names in the header.
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.
If you choose a KPI preset, any selections made in the KPI explorer will be reflected in the header as well.
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.
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.
STEP 3: The footer displays the page number by default. You can disable the Inforiver pagination using the Pagination toggle from the context menu.
Hiding the footer
To hide the footer, select the Hide Footer option from the context menu.
Exporting Footer in Excel
In the Reporting Matrix, you can include the footer while exporting. Go to Export > Export Report > Excel Settings. In Excel Settings, select the options to be exported under Footer content and click Save.
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.
Using the options in this section, you can align the contents, apply fill, border or shadows, and more.
a) Horizontal/Vertical align - Contents in a cell can be aligned horizontally and vertically as shown below.
b) In addition to using the handles, you also have an option in the toolbar to split the container or cells.
c) On selecting two cells, you can swap them by using the 'Swap container' option.
d) Fill - Fill color can be applied to one or more cells by using the color picker.
e) Shadows can be applied to cells as shown below.
f) Borders - Borders can be applied for cells, you can set the weight, corner radius and choose a color.
The following options are available for the header/footer containers - 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.
b) Container inner controls: The container controls are removed if this option is enabled.
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.
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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