A report template is the design behind a report: what the document shows, from which of your records, and how it sits on the page. You make one in two steps. You give it a name, then you describe the report to its assistant, which writes the template for you. The editor previews the result as the printed pages, so you check the real document rather than an approximation of it.
Creating a template
Open Setup and select Report templates. The page shows your templates as cards or as a table, each card previewing the last report that template made.
- Select New report template.
- Type a Template name, such as "Daily site summary". Each name belongs to one template, so Pyron refuses a name another template already uses.
- Select Create report template.
The new template opens in the editor. It asks for no details yet and has nothing to print: the preview says "Ask the assistant to build the report — the preview appears here." The next step is to describe the report to the assistant. See Drafting templates with the assistant.
The template editor
Open a template from the Report templates list to edit it. For how templates and the reports they make fit together, see Reports.
The editor has three parts:
- The header carries the template's name, an AI-built mark once the assistant has written it, the paper button that shows the sheet it prints on, such as A4 · Portrait, and the save status.
- The preview fills most of the page: the report as it prints, with its page breaks, the header repeated on each page and the footer. Above it, the Preview inputs strip shows the details the preview was made with.
- The assistant docks beside the preview when you open it. It is where the template is written and changed.
There is no code to read or edit. Everything about what the report shows and how it looks is something you ask the assistant for, and the preview shows you the outcome.
Previewing the report
The preview is the report exactly as it will print, made from your live data with the inputs in the strip above it. A preview is kept nowhere: it creates no report and sends nothing to anyone, so you can update it as often as you like.
- Select Edit preview inputs to open the inputs the template asks for.
- Fill in each value. To start from the details a real report used, choose one under Use the inputs of a report made from it.
- Select Update preview.
The preview updates only when you select Update preview, never while you type. Until every required input has a value, Update preview stays unavailable and the strip shows how many are missing. Update preview also saves the inputs on the template, so the next person to open it starts from the same values. For what inputs are and where they come from in a real report, see Report inputs.
The preview opens in your browser's own PDF viewer, so you can zoom, scroll through the pages and check the page breaks. If the report cannot be made with the inputs you chose, the preview shows "Couldn't make the preview" and the reason. Adjust the inputs, or ask the assistant to fix the report, and update the preview again.
Choose a site and a period where you know entries were logged. An empty period makes an empty report, which hides problems with tables and totals that a busy day would show.
The paper it prints on
The paper button in the header sets the sheet every report from this template prints on:
- Paper size: A4, Letter or Legal.
- Orientation: Portrait or Landscape.
- Margins for the top, right, bottom and left of each page, in millimetres. The bottom margin holds the page footer, which shows when the report was made and the page number, such as "Page 2 of 5".
Each change saves as you make it, and the next preview uses the new sheet. A change of paper counts as a new version of the template, so a report records which version it was made from.
Naming and saving
Select Rename template in the header to change the template's name. Each name belongs to one template.
The name and the paper save automatically, and the header shows while a save is in progress. A change from the assistant saves when you apply it in the conversation, and the preview updates after it. If someone else changes the template while you are working, Pyron refuses to overwrite their change: the editor loads their version, and you can apply yours again on top of it.
Deleting a template leaves every report already made from it in the reports list. When the document looks right, make reports from it with an automation. See Previewing and generating.