In this chapter, you explored in-depth the ins and outs of design and layout of reports using the Pentaho Report Designer. You first learned about the various user interface components that make up the Report Designer. From there, you dove deep into each reporting band and its properties. You learned that each band may be accessed via the tree structure, and each band may display in the canvas as well as offering properties in the property editor.

You then took an exhaustive look at all the report elements. The chapter introduced you to the common properties seen throughout all the elements, along with displaying the dialogs that the various attributes present when editing. You also walked through utilizing the menu, toolbar, canvas, and shortcut keys to quickly arrange and layout your report. This included introducing shortcuts that make it easy to align and distribute groups of elements.

Finally, the chapter touched on additional details when dealing with common issues with the various...