Artisan uses the Report Designer in a different area of the program, called the Customer Form Designer. Here, you can create and edit forms specifically for your clients. A common example is a liability waiver for firework stores.
Accessing the Customer Form Designer
To access the Customer Form Designer, head to the “Customers” menu from the “Main Menu.”
Click on “Customer Forms Designer.”
This opens the “Form Records” list. Any records you have created or installed will show up here for you to select and edit. In this example, we do not have any yet.
Creating a Form
To create a new form, click on “Add a New Record.”
Click on “Edit Form.”
This opens the Report Designer. If you’ve used the Report Designer before to create reports, you’ll notice it functions practically the same.
Editing the Form
Before you start working on your form, you’ll want to give your form a name so it’s saved within Artisan. Click on the “Report” tab and “Summary” option within the Report Designer.
Name the “Report Name” and “Report Title” as you see fit. Click “OK.“
Report Designer Tabs
At the top of the Report Designer are different tabs to choose from. These tabs contain dropdown fields that allow you to modify or adjust the form.
File
Close: You may exit the Report Designer by clicking “close” (or the red “X” on the top right of the Report Designer screen).
Page Setup: This allows you to control the overall size of the form.
This is the size of the paper your form will print onto. The default size is set to US-Letter, 8.5 x 11 inches, which is the standard printing paper size. Keep in mind how many fields, columns, and so on you’re including in the form, as smaller paper types might cut off information if the margins aren’t properly adjusted.
- Orientation
This determines if the form will print vertically (portrait) or horizontally (landscape). You’ll notice as these options are toggled, the width, height, and margins automatically adjust.
- Margins
These are the boundaries of the form–the space between the text and the edge of the page. We recommend leaving these fields alone. However, if you need more or less space, adjust the boundaries incrementally until you have the results you want.
Import Subreport: This allows you to select a report from your computer to combine with this form.
Edit
Most of these fields are self-explanatory. For example, “Undo” will remove the previous change you made, while “Redo” will restore that change.
- Delete Selected Fields
This is handy if you need to delete more than one field. Hold shift on the keyboard and click with your mouse to select more than one field to delete.
- Delete Group
This option will only be accessible if the field selected is classified as a “group” field.
- Delete Section
This option will only be accessible if the field selected is classified as a “section” field.
Insert
This tab lets you add fields to the form, from text, to columns, to images, and more. We’ll go over how this tab functions in detail later.
Format
This tab includes additional ways you can edit a field.
- Format Field
Adjust the text’s font, size, and other characteristics, such as bold, italic, and underline.
- “Word Wrap”
Checking this field off means the text will move down to the next line once it reaches the edge of the text box.
- “Comma Wrap“
Checking this field off means that any time a comma is used in the text box, the text after that will go to the next line.
- “Grow Vertically to Fit Content
Automatically adjusts the text box to expand downward as necessary.
Information on “Format” and “Translate Names” will be included in this article soon.
Bar Code Format
- Bar Code Type
We recommend leaving this section alone unless instructed by our tech support team.
Align
The alignment causes the text or barcode to be flush left, right, or center within the field itself.
Color
You may pick a swatch with the color dropper tool to update the text’s color. Or, you may use the other tabs for more control over mixing hues.
Inversing colors will switch the foreground colors to the background, and vice versa. Be mindful of your printer’s color capabilities and the color paper you’re printing on.
Border
This tab contains all parameters for a field’s border. A “count” set to “none” will not show a border line. You may have up to three lines on each side in a solid, dot, or dash style.
Examples:
Database
The database tab contains the “Table Linker.” The table linker connects form fields to Artisan code, which affects what appears on your form. We recommend leaving this section alone unless instructed by technical support.
This tab also includes “SQL Query.” This is particularly helpful when identifying any problems within the form. The staff might ask to see this information when repairing a form, which you can copy and paste into a support ticket.
Report
The first few tabs contain shortcuts to run or view the form, export or save a copy on your computer, or send it over email. The other sections contain options to sort, select, and view additional information.
Run
You may run the form without having to exit out of the Report Designer area. You may export, print, or email the form. When you’re finished, Artisan will return to the Report Designer.
Export
This screen lets you save the form from a variety of fields, such as .PDF or .XLS.
Choose a location to save this copy of the form and press “Save.”
Easily send the form right from Artisan. Enter the email address you’re sending to. Adjust the subject and text field as you see fit. When you’re finished, press “Send.”
Editing the Form
You may edit already existing fields or add new fields. When editing a field, the border around the field turns blue.
Adjusting Placement
If you need to adjust the field’s placement, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to shift the field from left to right. For more control, right-click and select “Position and Size.” We’ll go over this screen in a moment.
Hide: This screen allows you to hide a field if necessary. We recommend not altering this screen without instructions from the support staff.
Delete: Selecting this option will remove/erase the selected field.
Replace Field Source: Selecting this option causes any field that is placed on the form (using the “Insert” option or “Field Picker“) to assume the position, size, border, and format of this field.
Position and Size: This screen lets you edit the field’s position on the page, as well as the overall size of the field. The “Y” axis is the vertical position while the “X” axis is where the field is placed horizontally. Adjusting the “X” axis moves the field up and down while adjusting the “Y” axis moves the field left to right. For example, this field is currently at a Y-Axis of 7.0 and an X-Axis of 6.0.
Inputting a new Y-Axis number, 10, moves the field down.
Notice how the field moved from its original position.
Sections
As well as headers, footers, and columns, you may also organize information via sections and groups.
A “detail” is any section between the headers and footers. If you have more than one detail section, Artisan will name the sections Detail (a), Detail (b), and so on.
To create a section, right-click and select either “Insert Section Above” or “Insert Section Below.”
You may manually adjust the height of these sections by pulling on the lines separating each section.
Additional Tools
Right-clicking on the form reveals additional tools.
Suppress
Selecting this option opens the “Suppression” window. This is used to tell the Report Designer to ignore certain codes (information) on the form.
Background Color
This will change the background of the section of the form you’re editing. Remember that all printers will not print colors accurately, and be mindful that dark text on a dark background is difficult to read.
Before:
After:
New Page Before
This will cause the form, when viewed or printed, to have a blank page before the first page.
Shrink to Fit
This will cause the section to compress around whatever information is in the section, eliminating unnecessary blank space above and below the field.
Before:
After:
Select All In Section
This grabs everything in the section, which is especially helpful if you want to move more than one field at a time, or adjust the field’s font, size, etc.
Adding a Field to a Report
To add a field to the form, click on “Insert” and “Database Field.”
This opens up all fields that will pull data from Artisan to generate information for your form. Sort by section to find the field you’re looking for. In this example, we want to add a logo where we would like to place it on the form.
To resize the image, click on it and drag down a corner.
To see our changes, let’s head to the “Report” tab and press “Run.”
