Not up to date, strange location - should be located together with other "style guides"

IFS Report Layout Reference Guide

In order to make it easier for users to recognize IFS reports, different applications standard reports should look in a similar manner. To help new programmers/report designers assimilate the existing guidelines for how reports should look and be ordered, the following set of rules should be followed.

Contents

• Contents of a report
• Layout Recommendation
• Detail Frames/Tables
• List Frames/Tables
• Frame separators
• Page Header
• Page Footer
• Using Smaller Fonts

Contents of a report

• A report consists of a number of objects:

Frames/Tables: An object containing data. Detail (single record) or list (multiple records).

Separators: Separates frames into sections. Also used to identify a frame or table.

Page header: Top of every page in a report.

Page footer: Bottom of every page in a report.

Layout Recommendation

• Use font "Arial". When long texts are displayed and there is a lack of space, use the font "Times New Roman".
  
• There are two types of information in a report: Titles and data. The titles should be smaller sized than the data. For data, "Arial" 10 is mostly used. Decrease titles to be 2 points smaller than the corresponding data.
  
• Positioning and grouping the information: Present the information by the same principle as displayed in application GUIs (e.g. Master/detail relationships.) This way the end user would be able to recognize information in the application.
  
• Be careful with italic, bold and underlined fonts. It can be used to highlight information but should be used sparsely.
  
• Use empty underlined fields when the end user intends to write specific information on the paper (report).
  
• Separators should be used to separate larger sections of information. Note: Do not use separators when not necessary.
  
• Avoid using "dynamic field length" (field length depending on data) whenever possible.
• But do not abbreviate titles, unless necessary.
   

Detail Frames/Tables

When presenting data in a detail view:

• Adjust titles and data left to each other. With title above the field.
• Titles should not include a comma (:). The footer is the only exception.
• Use horizontal/vertical groupings to make the report easier to read.
• Do not use too many columns.
• Make sure all columns are aligned.

Back to Top

List Frames/Tables

• List frames/tables is used to present data as a list.
  
• Place titles as a "record" in top of the list. Separate titles and data with a single line.
  
• Place the data under the titles, grouped in the same way.
• Make sure data is aligned to the left for text, right for numbers and in the same vertical position as the title. (example above is bad)

Back to Top

Separators

• A separator is used to distinctively separate information.
• This object should be as wide as the paper allows.
  
• Before and after every separator there should be an empty line.
• A separator text can be used to identify the next section.
• Separators can be either a box or a line.

Back to Top

Page Header

• Page header contains "company name", "instance information", "date created" and a single line. Note that "Created" is not the actual time when printed, but rather when specific data was produced.
  
• Note that colons should be used for titles in page header.
  
• The same rules applies for font sizing as in frames. "Instance information" should be in "Arial" size 14, bold.
• The page header on the first page can sometimes be different and contain a logo. In this situation the header is normally larger.
• Place a logo all the way to the left or all the way to the right.
• When a header contains dates, customer number and similar data, use the form frames/tables guidelines above.

Back to Top

Page Footer

• Page footer contains "Report title", the text "IFS APPLICATIONS" and "Page number".
  
• When a footer contains addresses, phone numbers and similar data, use the list frames/tables guidelines above.
• Note that colons should be used for titles in page footer.

Back to Top

Using Smaller Fonts

In this reference guide, recommendations are made with font sizing 14 (text in separators and headers), 10 (data) and 8 (titles). However, sometimes there is a need to compress information to fit a specific page. Titles and data in report frames should then be decreased to 7 (titles), 8 (data) and 12 (separators). Note: Page header and footer should not be changed.

Back to Top