Report Designer and Reporting engine issues

Follow the suggestions in the following sections to help resolve common issues with Report Designer and the Pentaho Reporting engine:

• Report elements with dynamic heights overlap other elements

• Columns unexpectedly merge when exporting to Excel

Report elements with dynamic heights overlap other elements

If you have overlapping elements in your report when using the dynamic-height style property, use the following directions to create a two-row details band:

1. In the Structure pane, select your Details band and then go to the Style pane and change the value of layout to 'block'.

2. Right-click the Details band, then select band from the Add Element context menu.

3. Move or add the elements for the first row into your created band.

4. Add another band, then move or copy all elements for the second row into the second band.

When your first row elements expand, your second row elements will be pushed down. Repeat this process as necessary for multiple rows.

Columns unexpectedly merge when exporting to Excel

If you export content from Report Designer to Excel and end up with unexpectedly merged columns in the output, you probably have a horizontal alignment problem with your column header or footer labels. If a label spans two columns, then the Pentaho Reporting engine will force the two columns to merge in the output.

Check your horizontal elements for overlapping column. If you need more information on this topic, refer to the section: Align elements.