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Working with Reports

Deep-Sky Planner includes new technologies that permit extensive control over report content, layout and appearance. The capabilities explained below apply to all reports except the Detailed Planet Ephemeris, Graphical Darkness and Detailed Observing Log reports.

After you generate a report (by Calculating, Searching or Running) you can:

▪view it on-screen

▪print it or preview it

▪save it to another format such as formatted text, HTML or CSV (comma separated values) or ICS (planet events only).

Report Content - Hiding & Showing Columns

Most Deep-Sky Planner reports are presented in a tabular style, organized in rows and columns. Many of the reports have enough columns to extend beyond the edge of a printed page even in landscape printing mode. If viewed on-screen, these reports can be scrolled to the right so that you can view all of the information. However, there may be columns of data that you don't want to see or that you want to eliminate when printing. For these cases, you can switch on and off the display of columns by clicking the Show Columns button in a report pane of document windows.

Show Columns displays a list of column names and checkboxes that control whether each column is displayed. These display settings are saved¹ when you close a document so that the next time you open the same type of document, the same column display settings are applied.

The Show Columns button also includes a dropdown menu accessed by clicking the down arrow beside the button. These functions are available on the button dropdown menu:

▪Manage Columns displays the same list of columns and checkboxes as Show Columns.

▪Restore Columns allows you to turn on all columns in the report display, thereby restoring report column display to the shipped settings.

▪Presets allow you to select a 'preset' column layout which permits you to change your view of the report content instantly. The preset layout names and functions vary by report type.

Note that columns displaying star atlas cross references are controlled at the system level in Preferences. This is intended to allow users to hide atlas information for atlases that they do not own. If an atlas is enabled in Preferences, the column can still be hidden individually using Show Columns or Manage Columns.

Report Layout - Moving & Sizing Columns

When a report is created in a document, Deep-Sky Planner tries to size columns to fit the content. For performance reasons, only the first 100 lines of a report are used to compute the optimum size of columns so that they fit their content. You can trigger the optimum fit feature any time a report is displayed by clicking the Fit Columns button on the report pane. Note that optimizing may not result in a perfect fit, especially if variable width fonts are being used.

The layout of reports can be adjusted by moving and resizing columns. You can move a column by clicking and dragging the column heading 'cell' left or right. As you drag the column heading, green arrows indicate where the column would be if you dropped it at that position. You can resize a column by clicking and dragging the line between header cells. Move your mouse cursor over the line between header cells and it changes to the resize cursor (vertical bar with arrows.) Next, click and drag the line to make the column wider or narrower. This is particularly useful when you want to print a report. Please note that the Restore Columns function moves columns to their default position and width.

Report Sorting - Columns & Direction

Reports may be sorted by the values in one or more columns, and the sorting direction of each selected columns can be either ascending or descending.

To sort a report by a column of data, click once in the heading cell in the desired column of data. A light gray chevron is displayed indicating the sorting direction of the column (i.e., ascending or descending). Click on the same column again to toggle the sorting direction. To disable sorting on the column, Ctrl-click.

To sort by multiple columns, click on the primary sort order column, then Shift-click on additional (secondary) columns. You can toggle the direction of secondary sort columns with another Shift-click. The order in which you apply sorting is important when data is sorted by multiple columns. You can review the sort specification in the Search/Sort Options Summary of the document.

Report Appearance - Colors & Fonts

The fonts and colors used for reports is controlled with stylesheets. You can choose from a number of stylesheets that ship with the product or make your own using the Report Style Browser. You can open the Report Style Browser by right-clicking on a report and choosing Report Styles on the context menu, or by selecting Options | Report Styles from the main menu.

¹ Column settings are generally retained when you create a new report. Columns can be switched off automatically when a catalog selection does not contain that information. Switching catalogs again may leave columns switched off. In this case, please use Restore Columns to turn on all appropriate colcumns, or use the Manage Columns function to switch on individual columns. You can always tell which columns can be shown in a report by using the Show Columns or Manage Columns functions.