With the Image and Shapes tools, you can add images, lines, rectangles and rounded rectangles to your form design.

You can also assign multiple images or shapes in a dynamic vertical position to the Conditional Area by dragging the pointer in the input view to a pattern. Thus, a new object can be connected to any pattern meeting the selected pattern criterion. Images or shapes become then visible within the Conditional Area of the form.

To create a dynamic table around a region or a Conditional Area, you can drag the pointer around an item line in the output view to frame the selected columns.

Exercise

Download and import the attached configuration called 20. Tables, Shapes and Images in Lasernet Developer 9. Afterwards, go to the Forms section and open the Sample form.

1. On the Developer toolbar, click the Shapes tool, and then click Rectangle.

2. Draw a rectangle around labels and values in the right-hand corner of the header in the output.

3. Edit the rectangle properties. On the Position tab, select the following check boxes in the Absolute group box: First, Middle, Last and Single Page.

4. On the Shape tab, set Color to grey in the Fill group box

5. Click the Ok button to confirm changes.

6. Right-click the rectangle you have added, click Order, and then click Send to Back to move a layer with the rectangle backwards, and thus make the text visible.

The rectangle is now on the background.

The next step is to draw a table around the Conditional Area. To this end, follow the steps listed below.

7. On the Developer toolbar, click Table, and then click Apply to Conditional Area.

8. Move the pointer to the Conditional Area in the output and select columns to define the outer boundaries of the table.

Columns of the Conditional Area are now organized within the table. The number of columns in the table corresponds to the number of outlined rearranges.

Let us now change the table layout, so it meets our purpose.

9. To edit table properties, right-click a line of the table, and then click Table Properties on the context menu that appears.

10. In the Table Properties dialog, switch to the Body tab.

11. Set Top Margin to 7 mm.

12. Click the Apply to all pages button.

13. Click Ok to confirm changes.

A top margin has been added between the table header and data of the table body.

14. In the Table Properties dialog, switch to the Header tab.

15. In the Fill group, set Color to grey.

16. Click the Apply to all columns button. The color is applied to all columns in the header.

17. Select No Color for Border Color in the Right Border group box.

18. Click the Next Column button.

19. For Column 2, specify the same values as it is illustrated on the picture below. In addition, in the Fill group box, use the Color drop-down control to select a grey color. Afterwards, click the Next Column button.

20. For Column 3, specify the same values as it is illustrated on the picture below. In addition, in the Fill group box, use the Color drop-down control to select a grey color. Afterwards, click the Next Column button.

21. For Column 4, specify the same values as it is illustrated on the picture below. In addition, in the Fill group box, use the Color drop-down control to select a grey color. Afterwards, click the Next Column button.

22. For Column 5, specify the same values as it is illustrated on the picture below. In addition, in the Fill group box, use the Color drop-down control to select a grey color.

23. Click the Apply to all pages button to apply the same settings for First, Middle, Last and Single pages.

24. Click Ok to confirm changes.

The table header is now formatted as it is illustrated on the picture below.

Note: You can also change the column width when you move a table border using the cursor. A splitter symbol then appears, and you can now drag the line to the left or to the right to change the column size.

25. In the Table Properties dialog, switch to the Footer tab.

26. Select the Hide footer on page check box.

27. To change the table formatting for the middle page, select the Middle check box in the Current Page group box.

28. In the Current Page group box, select the Middle check box, and then select the Hide footer on page check box.

29. Click Ok to confirm chan

The footer is now hidden on the first and middle pages.

For the last and single pages, we are now going to extend the default size of the table.

30. In the Table Properties dialog, switch to the Footer tab, and then select the Last check box in the Current Page group box.

31. Select End of cond. area (Absolute) from the Relative to drop-down list.

32. Set Height to 15 mm.

33. Clear the Hide footer on page check box

34. Click Ok to confirm change

We have now added a footer with an absolute position, relative to the end of the Conditional Area, for the last and single pages only.

35. Continue formatting the footer for the last and single pages to have the final result as it is shown on the picture below. To this end, on the Footer tab, select No Color for the right border for column 1 and 4, for both right and left borders for column 2, for the left border for column 3 and 5, as well as select grey as a filling color for the two last columns (4-5).

Finally, we are going to use the Image tool available on the Developer bar to add an image to the top of the document.

36. On the Developer bar, click Image, then click Local and Remote, and then click File.... When the pointer has a hover effect, click in the header of the output to insert the image.

37. The Choose an image file dialog opens defining the default directory: [Current Configuration]/Files/Images. Select an image file and click Open.

By default, the image of its original size is inserted to the output. To control the image size, follow the steps listed below.

Note: When you select an image file from the other folders, not the default one, you are then prompted to copy a selected file to the Images folder located in the current configuration or to use the original file location.

38. On the Position tab, select the First, Middle, Last and Single check boxes in the Absolute group box.

39. Set Size type to Auto Width+Height.

40. Set the X position to 129 mm.

41. Set the Y position to 41 mm.

42. Set Width to 78.1 mm and Height to 28 mm.

43. Click Ok to confirm changes.

We have now resized the image and moved it to the required position for this particular document.