The User Interface

Content Pane

The content pane contains objects that you can add to a report. You add objects to a report by dragging them to the work area. The content pane contains these tabs:

• The Source tab contains items from the package selected for the report, such as data items and calculations.
• The Data Items tab describes the queries created in the report.
• The Toolbox tab contains a variety of objects that you can add to the report, such as text and graphics.
  Tip: Click the icons below the Toolbox title bar to view toolbox items as icons or as a list, to sort items, and to filter items by different groups. To add a toolbox item to the favorite toolbox items group, right-click the item and click Add to Favorite Toolbox Items.
• The Search tab contains the results when you perform a search for members. You can insert the members found in a search directly into a report.
• If you are authoring an active report, the Active Report Controls tab shows the controls and active report variables inserted in a report and their relationships to one another. You can click a control in this tab to quickly locate the control in the report as well as set default values for variables.
• If you are authoring an active report, the Active Report Variables tab shows the active report variables defined in a report. Use this tab to create new variables and set default values.

Properties Pane

The Properties pane lists the properties that you can set for an object in a report.

You can obtain additional information about a property by selecting it and pressing F1. For example, you can view the list of objects that use each property.

When you specify a value for a property, press Enter, click another property, or save the report to ensure that the value is saved.

Tip: To view a description of the currently selected property at the bottom of the pane, from the View menu, click Property Descriptions.

Explorer Bar

Pause the pointer over the following buttons on the Explorer bar to work with different parts of a report:

• the page explorer button

  You use Page Explorer to view or create new report pages and prompt pages or to create and modify classes.

• the query explorer button

  You use Query Explorer to create or modify queries in relational reporting or dimensional reporting and to perform complex tasks, such as defining union joins and writing SQL statements.

• the condition explorer button

  You use Condition Explorer to work with variables to define conditions in a report.

The Explorer bar also contains icons for the different views in which you can author reports.

• page design view

  The page design view shows you what the report will look like after you run it.

• page structure view

  The page structure view shows you an overview of all objects in the report in a tree structure.

• Active Report preview

  When you are authoring an IBM Cognos Active Report, the Active Report Preview view shows you live data as you format the report.

Page Layers Area

Use the Page layers area to create sections, or page breaks, in a report to show values for each member on a separate page. For example, you can drag Northern Europe sales territory from the Source tab to the Page layers area. The report is broken into a separate page for each territory within northern Europe. Each page's context appears in the report header.

For more information, see Create Page Layers.

Context Filter Area

When working with dimensional data, use the Context filter area to filter your report to show values, or context, for only a specific data item. This technique is also known as a slicer filter. For example, you can drag Sales Territory from the Source tab to the Context filter area. When you click a specific territory from the list, the values in the crosstab change to represent data for that territory.

For more information, see Create a Context Filter.

Visual Aids Button

The visual aids button provides the following options to help you when you are designing reports in the layout.