Working with Report Templates in the Report Designer

The Report templates in Telerik Reporting hold the initial report layout and styling, and allow for creating reports with consistent look and feel. They save time by skipping the repetitive tasks associated with building a new report every time, so that users can focus on the specific requirements of the new report. These tasks may include setting page sizes, connecting to data sources, defining headers and footers (such as adding a logo and page numbers), as well as styling. In Q3 2012 you can create, load, and reuse such report templates in the standalone Report Designer.

Creating a Report Template is simple

1. In the Report Designer, start from a regular blank report and define it according to your needs. Alternatively, you can open an existing report with a predefined layout according to your needs, and remove any unwanted items from it. The template can include everything from page settings and report items to preliminary configured data source components. Export the report as a template from the Report Designer backstage:
    
2. This will invoke the new Export Template Wizard which will guide you through the required steps of template packaging and loading. The wizard utilizes any .trdx report definition as a template base. The template is saved in the default template directory and will be automatically loaded in the designer and ready for use:
   

The Telerik Report Designer will automatically load templates, placed in the following directories:

• The default templates directory located in the Telerik Report Designer’s working directory. By default the working directory is located in the user documents folder named Telerik Report Designer.
• The templates folder located in the application directory. The application folder is where the Telerik Report Designer executable is located.

Easy, right? Happy reporting!