(click on the image to enlarge)
One key component of Scribe is the creation of Print Templates that take care of the visual aspects of the report, including, but not limited to, formatting of the text, alignment, assignment of fonts, etc. Print templates (forms) are collections of print fields that are laid out on a user-defined grid and define the location and visual attributes of text, graphics and images that make the report.
Print Templates are created and maintaned by the editor that consists of three windows: Workspace, Palette and Inspector, as shown in the figure below:
(click on the
image to enlarge)
The Palette provides a repository of components, such as print fields, that the Print Template is made of; the Workspace is a canvas on which the Template is laid out, and the Inspector is used for fine-tuning the attributes of the Print Template components, such as text alignment, date formatting etc.
Template life cycle
When a print template is called by the Report Procedure for the first time, through
the Print executable component, it begins
its life cycle that continues until the Procedure exits, or until the print
template
is terminated through the Terminator component.
During its life, the print template remains alert to the page-start and page-end events that may prompt it to activate its Header and Footer print sequences. If the template is explicitly terminated by the Terminator, and then is called again, its life starts anew; the template may again call its start-up Header (if it exists), and become responsive to the page-break events.