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Workday Education
Last Updated: 2026-07-10
Formatting the Report and Properties

Formatting the Report and Properties

Overview

The Report Designer tool can be used to format the output to make the report visually appealing and effective. There are several formatting options including: highlighting data, changing the appearance of text, dates, numbers or currency values.

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
  • Work with the grid report item.
  • Add an image to the layout.
  • Change font size.
  • Format dates.
  • Add color to report items.

Formatting the Report and Properties

Formatting is what you do to make a report visually appealing and effective. Format a report, for example, to highlight certain data, change the display of dates, numbers, or currency values, adjust the spacing between report elements, or display data based on a specified condition or output format.
Report Designer provides many options for customizing the appearance of report elements. Using various formatting properties, you can change the alignment, color, font, size, and other properties of these report elements. You can also add background colors, draw borders around elements, etc.
Screenshot of the Palette view and its options.
The Palette view contains items that can be added to the layout of the report, like grids, tables, charts, text boxes, and images.
You can select one or more items on the report layout and use the Property Editor view to format and control the behavior of the selected items. Elements on the report can all be formatted. The formatting options will vary based on the element, but all configurable through the Property Editor.
Screenshot of the Property Editor formatting options for the Employee ID field selected on the report.
Selecting Items on the Report
When you select an item on the report layout, you can use the Property Editor- Report view of the report to manipulate the selected item or items. When selecting an entire table or grid, hover over the table and select the Table button that appears. When clicked, the Property Editor - Table view will appear.
Screenshot of the Property Editor - Table view, as described in the preceding text.
You can select individual fields and labels to format. When you select a label, you will see the Property Editor - Label. When you select a field, you will see the Property Editor - Data.
Data
The Property Editor - Data displays when you select a report data field.
Screenshot of the Property Editor - Data tab, including options such as padding, border, margin, and bookmark.
Text and Labels
Screenshot of the Label, Text, and Dynamic Text options on the toolbar.
You can add a label, text block, or dynamic text block the report layout.
  • Label
    : Static Text.
  • Text
    : Insert a plain text or HTML text block with optional in-line expression.
  • Dynamic Text
    : Insert a text block with optional CLOB Data Expressions.
Grid
Drag a Grid from the Report Items folder within the Palette, to the Layout tab in the main window and position it above the table. The grid report item allows you to insert a row or column layout to visually arrange other items, for example, the image and report title.
Screenshot of the Grid icon in the Report Items folder.
When selecting an entire grid, hover over the grid and select the Grid button that appears. When clicked, the Property Editor - Grid view will appear.
Screenshot of the Grid icon appearing when hovering over the grid.
Table
You can format the table borders on the Property Editor - Table. Each individual cell of the table is formatted in the respective Property Editor - Cell view.
Screenshots of the Property Editor - Table and Property Editor - Cell views. These views enable changing the border style, color, and width.
A table represents the rows of data from a data set. Where the table is bound to a data set, a row will be created in the output document for each row of data in the data set. By contrast, the rows in a grid do not represent the rows in a data set.
Images
The Report Designer allows four types of images to be created. However, of these, only Dynamic Image and Embedded Image are recommended.
  • Dynamic Image
    : Use this option for display of Image Content from Reports (e.g., row["Photo"]).
  • Embedded Images
    : This option allows for the embedding of images directly into the report design (Image actually gets inserted as Base64 encoded text in the rptdesign file).
Be careful when removing embedded images from the Report Design. Deleting them from the layout view does not remove them from the report design completely. To do this, select the Outline tab, right-click on the named Image in the Embedded Images section and then remove it from the document.
Drag an Image report item from the Palette, to the first column in the grid on the Layout tab in the main window.
Screenshot that shows dragging an image report item from the Palette to the first grid column in the main window.
When you drop the icon onto the report layout, you will be prompted to select an image. Once selected, the image is displayed.
Screenshot of the Edit Image Item window that appears when you drop an icon onto the report layout. In the image, the embedded image option is selected.
Number Format
You can control the appearance of your number columns by using the Format Number tab on the Property Editor.
Screenshot of the Format Number tab.
Date Format
You can control the appearance of your date columns by using the Format Number tab on the Property Editor. You can select an existing format, or you can create your own custom format using the format codes.
Screenshot of the Format DateTime selection options. The Custom option is selected, and the custom format of yyy/MM/dd displays in the Format code field. A preview of the custom date and time format output displays at the bottom of the screen.
Conditional Formatting
Formatting is what you do to make a report visually appealing and effective. Format a report, for example, to highlight certain data, change the display of dates, numbers, or currency values, adjust the spacing between report elements, or display data based on a specified condition or output format.
Once the data object is selected, view the Highlights tab in the Property Editor.
Screenshot of the Total Base Pay field selected on the report and the Highlights tab showing in the Property Editor. An arrow points to the Add button in the highlight list. Screenshot of the Edit Highlight window, with a background highlight color of red selected.