Report Writer

Report Writer lets you create customized reports that combine data that may not be put together in any other report in Shepherd's Staff.

You can print up to 10 pieces of information (fields) about people in your database. This information can be printed for all people, for a list, for a subgroup, or even for just one person.

You choose the sort order, the column headings, the report title(s), the fonts, and the layout.

1. Access the Report Writer by clicking on the Reports button (Button with an R and a graph on it) in the Shepherd's Staff Central Toolbar and select "Report Writer"
2. On the bottom left hand corner of the window, if you are creating a new report, click the "Add" to create a new, blank report.
3. In the Report name field, erase "New report" and fill in the title of the report you are creating. You may also provide it with a category and a description.
4. If you are using or updating a saved report, simply click on that report in the saved reports window.
5. In the Who section, select who you will be generating this report for.
6. If your report will involve contribution information, and you only want to include one contributor per envelope check the box for "Only show one contributor for joint envelopes". If your report will be looking at multiple funds or events, and you want to see data on each fund, or each event, check the box for "Select a different event or fund for each field".
7. In the Fields/columns box, click in the first box to select the first field that you want to add to your report.
8. In the Select a field box, first pick from the category you want to look in, and then select the field you want to use from the list. You can search for a particular field by using the search box above the field window and pressing enter. 
9. Repeat steps 7 & 8 to select each field you want to appear in your report. Each field you select will appear as a column in your report.
10. Next, click the layout tab. In the layout section, you can choose if you want your report to be oriented in portrait, landscape or a specialized option. Specialized options include photo directory options for people or households, a sign in sheet, a checklist by day, week, or month, or mailing labels. If choosing one of the photo options, you can choose your photo size, and you're provided with a few checkboxes for options, such as adding a frame around your pictures, including those who don't have a picture, and to include the photo description
11. In the sorting section, you can choose up to 3 fields to sort by. If you want to sort in descending order for that column instead of ascending order, check the "Descending" box for that field.
12. In the grouping section, you can choose options if you want to group by your first field (So, for example, if you used Person Assigned). 
13. Choose any options you want in the option section, such as being able to only show your header on your first page, truncating text if it exceeds your column width, and separating rows with a line. You can also insert up to 3 custom report headings.
14. If you want to graph the fields you've selected, click the Graph tab to see your fields represented on a graph.
15. Click the Save icon if you want to use this same report again in the future. 
16. You can then either print your report, export your report to excel, send it to a word doc for a mail merge, or graph it by clicking the buttons in the bottom right corner of the page.