As we discussed in Chapter 2, Getting Started with Report Designer, the creation of a Pentaho report starting from a blank report is an alternative to using the Report Design Wizard. Neither of the two ways is better than the other. Each way has advantages and disadvantages, and you should mature your own idea after some practice.
The development starting from a blank report is suggested if you want to have full control over the details and behaviors. The development using the wizard is suggested if your goal is to develop a standard report, quite simple in terms of structure, and also simple in terms of layout and customizations.
Note
Let's underline again one best practice: some developers prefer to start modifying a report built with the wizard, instead of starting from scratch. In principle this is not bad, but what can be experienced is that you have less control over some details, especially in fine tuning of the layout or some unexpected behaviors in particular...