How to add lines and boxes to reports and documents

You can tailor your reports, layouts, letters and labels to suit your individual company needs. Lines or boxes can be used to improve the appearance of your documents, for example, to highlight certain text or to divide sections of information.

How to locate the report or document

Open: Tools > Run Sage Report Designer.

Go to File Explorer section.

The default reports are all stored under the Defaults folder by type of report and module such as nominal, purchases etc:

If you've previously amended the report or document, it will be saved in the Custom or Company folder.
Report types
- Labels - prints labels for stock items and suppliers.
- Layouts - used for printing invoices and credit notes.
- Letters - for debtor letters to send to customers.
- Reports - all reports

Add a line

Open: View > Dynamic help

Select Add a line or box and then Draw a line.
Click Draw Line.
Click on the document where you'd like to add the line.
Drag the line to the roughly the required length. You can change this later.
To change the style, width and colour, click Change line style.

Choose the required options from the drop-down lists.
If you want create a single horizontal line that spans the whole page, select Span width.
To make the line vertical or horizontal, choose the appropriate option in the Alignment section

Tip: Preview the document to check that it's displaying correctly (View > Preview).

Other line properties

Line Style	The style, colour and thickness of the line.
Conditional formatting	Conditional formatting is used to draw attention to, or ignore, information when a condition is met. For example, you could use conditional formatting to highlight balances that exceed certain amount, or indicate inactive records
Print on first copy only	True - when multiple copies a reprinted the line will only show on the first one. False - the line is printed on all copies.
Suppress printing	True - the line is not shown on printed copies. False - the line is shown on printed copies.
Visible	False - Hides the line in the report Note: If you choose False, to make the box visible again once you have moved away from it, locate it via the Report Explorer pane then change the Visible property back to True.
Locked	True - locks the line in this position so it can't be moved when clicked. False - the line can be moved. This is useful when you know your lines are in the correct place and prevent them being moved accidentally.
Start	Shows the position of the beginning of the line X - Shows the horizontal position of the line Y - Shows the vertical position of the line Tip: Click the drop arrow to the left to see the X and Y position
End	Shows the position of the end of the line X - Shows the horizontal position of the line Y - Shows the vertical position of the line Tip: Click the drop arrow to the left to see the X and Y position
Linked position	Links the position of the line to another element in the document. This could be a section, margins or another object. The line will move relative to the object it's linked to. For example, if you move the section, the line will also be moved.
Linked position anchor	Choose which sides of the line link to the other element.
Linked dimension	Links the line to be the same size relative to another element in the document. This could be a section, margins or another object. The line will resize relative to the element it's linked to. For example, if you expand the section, the line will also expand.
Linked dimension anchor	Choose whether the height, width or both are resized.

Add a box

Open: View > Dynamic help

Select Add a line or box and then Draw a box.
Click Draw box.
Click on the document where you'd like to add the box.
Drag the mouse to the required size.
To change the borders, click Change border.

Choose the required options from the drop-down lists.
To change the fill colour for the box, click Change background.

Choose the colour and style.

Tip: Preview the document to check that it's displaying correctly (View > Preview).

Other box properties

Style	Applies an existing preset style to the box.
Conditional formatting	Conditional formatting is used to draw attention to, or ignore, information when a condition is met. For example, you could use conditional formatting to highlight balances that exceed certain amount, or indicate inactive records.
Border	Sets colour, width etc for the box borders.
Background	Sets the fill colour for the box.
Print on first copy only	True - when multiple copies a reprinted the box will only show on the first one. False - the box is printed on all copies.
Suppress printing	True - box is not shown on printed copies. Can be used to indicate conditional formatting and hidden formulas used by 3rd party addictions such as Spindle. False - box is shown on printed copies.
Visible	To make the box visible, choose True, or to make it invisible, choose False. Note: If you choose False, to make the box visible again once you have moved away from it, locate it via the Report Explorer pane then change the Visible property back to True.
Locked	True - locks the box in this position so it can't be moved when clicked. False - box can be moved. This is useful when you know your box is in the correct place and prevents it being moved accidentally.
Location	X - Shows the horizontal position of the box Y - Shows the vertical position of the box Tip: Click the drop arrow to the left to see the X and Y position
Dimension	Width - the width for the box. Height - the height for the box Tip: Click the drop arrow to the left to see the width and height.
Linked position	Links the position of the box to another element in the document. This could be a section, margins or another object. The box will move relative to the object it's linked to. For example, if you move the section, the box will also be moved.
Linked position anchor	Choose which sides of the box link to the other element.
Linked dimension	Links the box to be the same size relative to another element in the document. This could be a section, margins or another object. The box will resize relative to the element it's linked to. For example, if you expand the section, the box will also expand.
Linked dimension anchor	Choose whether the height, width or both are resized.

Saving your amended report or document

When you save a customised report or document, make sure to save it in a new folder. This is to make sure that the original isn't lost.

If you have more than one company, you can choose whether the amended report should be used for all companies or just for a specific one.

When you generate a report or document Sage 200 first looks for the version in the Company folder, then the Custom folder, and if it does not find one it uses the 'out of the box' version. For each report, it will check in a specific folder for a specific filename.