Print layouts, bands, and certain controls have Appearance settings in common. For example, a print layout, Detail band, and Label control all have settings to configure the font, padding, and border. These repeated settings provide an inheritance hierarchy. By default, controls inherit the settings from bands and bands inherit them from the layout. This enables you to configure values at a higher level for controls to inherit, which saves configuration time and ensures styling consistency.
Initially, a blank layout and its bands use the same (default) Appearance settings. When you add a control to the layout, it inherits those settings. If you then change an Appearance setting at the layout level, all the controls in the layout inherit the new value, as do any new controls that you add. Now if you change a setting at the band level, the controls in the band inherit the band's new value.
You can override a setting's layout-level configuration by configuring the setting at the band level, and you can override the band-level configuration by configuring the setting at the control level. The lowest setting that you have explicitly configured is used.
The rules of inheritance are as follows:
•If you configure a setting at the control level, the control uses the control-level configuration, regardless of whether the setting has also been configured at the band or layout level.
•If you configure a setting at the band level but not at the control level, the control inherits the band-level configuration, regardless of whether the setting has also been configured at the layout level.
•If you configure a setting at the layout level but not at the band or control level, the control inherits the layout-level configuration.
To reset a setting to its factory value, click the icon to the right of the setting and select Reset. This re-enables the control's ability to inherit settings. Manually reconfiguring a setting to its factory value does not re-enable the control's ability to inherit.
Location of the icon to reset a setting
Controls that are contained in a Panel control or table cell can inherit settings from the panel or table cell. In this case, controls inherit from panels or table cells, panels and table cells inherit from bands, and bands inherit from the print layout.
Example
You want to use Arial as the font throughout a layout. You select the layout and set the Font | Font Name setting to Arial. You are careful not to change the Font Name setting for any bands or controls. All the controls in the layout inherit the font from the layout.
The layout has a Report Header band that contains a title and some corporate information. You want all the text in the Report Header band to be blue. You select the Report Header band and configure the Foreground Color to be blue. You do not change the Foreground Color setting for any of the Report Header's controls, so they inherit the color from the band.
The title is the largest text in the layout. No other control uses that text size, so you configure the Font | Font Size setting at the control level.
