17.11- Aligning and Stacking Objects in the Layout Designer 17.12- Resizing Columns in the Layout Designer
Sample-
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Customizing Forms
17.1- Creating New Form Templates:
Every form that you enter information into has its own layout of fields, images and labels used for data entry and printed display. In QuickBooks, you can customize the layout of a form to better suit your company’s needs. For example, there are three preset formats for invoices: professional, service, and product. If these templates don’t precisely fulfill your needs, you can customize them as needed. You can also customize much more than just invoices in QuickBooks. The forms that you can customize in QuickBooks are: invoices, sales receipts, credit memos, statements, purchase orders, and estimates. Note that estimates are only available in QuickBooks Pro and Premier. For each form, you can choose which fields and columns to include, where they are placed in the form, and what they are called. Once you have finished customizing the form, you can save the new layout as a custom template to use at your convenience.
In QuickBooks, you use the “Basic Customization” and “Additional Customization” windows to make general customization settings for your forms. In these windows, you decide what fields to add to your form for both onscreen display and within the printed version. After performing the basic customization, you can then use the “Layout Designer” to arrange the selected fields, set additional formatting options, and add text boxes and images to the printed version of the form.
You begin the process by selecting “Lists| Templates” from the Menu Bar to open the “Templates”
list. In the “Templates” list, click the “Templates” button in the lower left corner to show a menu of choices.
To make a new template, select the “New” command from the pop-up menu. That will present you with the
“Select Template Type” dialog box, where you select the option button that corresponds to the type of form you are trying to create. Then click the “OK” button to begin customizing your selected form template.
for evaluation
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Customizing Forms
17.2- Performing Basic Customization:
Once you have selected a type of form to customize, you will then be presented with the “Basic Customization” window. This window displays the most commonly used and basic customization options for forms. You can make any changes to the options shown here, and then examine how your choice impacts the preview of the form displayed at the right side of the window.
At the very top of the “Basic Customization” window, you will see the name of the new template that you have created shown within the “Selected Template” section.
In the “Logo & Fonts” section, you can check the “Use logo” checkbox to add your company logo to the printed version of the form. When you do this, the “Select Image” dialog box will appear. Use this dialog box to browse for and then select the image file to use as your logo. Once it has been selected, click the
“Open” button to return to the “Basic Customization” window. You can choose a color scheme for your form by making a selection from the “Select Color Scheme” drop-down menu. You can then click the “Apply Color Scheme” button to apply the selected scheme to the preview shown at right. You can change the font used within the sections of the form by selecting a section within the “Change Font For” list. Then click the
“Change Font…” button to open an “Example” dialog box where you can change the font attributes for the selected item. When you have finished making your font choices, click the “OK” button to return to the
“Basic Customization” window. Your choices will then be displayed in the preview to the right.
In the “Company & Transaction Information” section, check the checkboxes for any company information that you want to add to the printed version of the form. If you need to update your company information, note that you can click the “Update Information…” button to open the “Company Information”
window where you can input any company information required. If you do this, click the “OK” button to return to the “Basic Customization” window when finished.
Once you have completed the basic customization, you can then choose what you would like to do next. You can click the “Additional Customization…” button to display the “Additional Customization”
window where you can set more advanced features of the template. You can click the “Layout Designer…”
button to open the “Layout Designer” window where you can change the placement of elements within the printed version of the form. You can click the “OK” button to save the template into your Template List as it is. You can also click the “Cancel” button, if needed, to cancel the changes as well as the creation of the new template.
Sample-
for evaluation
purposes
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Customizing Forms
17.3- Performing Additional Customization:
After completing the basic form customization within a template, you can click the “Additional Customization…” button to set additional form customization options within the “Additional Customization”
window. The “Additional Customization” window uses several tabs to display different sets of options for customizing the various sections of the selected type of form. Each area within the form is represented by a tab. Click on the name of the tab that corresponds to the area of the form you would like to customize.
Next, check or uncheck the checkboxes next to the names of the fields underneath the “Screen” and
“Print” columns to show or hide their display within both the “Screen” version of the form- where you perform data entry, and the “Print” version of the form- which is the version that you print. Then enter the titles you want to display for those fields into the adjacent text boxes. Note that for some fields you can have a field that appears in one version but not the other, if desired. For example, if you have a custom field that you want to enable within the screen version so that you can enter or view information, but don’t want the customer to see this information within the printed version, then select the “Screen” checkbox for that field and clear the “Print” checkbox.
For any tabs that display columnar information, such as the “Columns” tab, you can change the order that the columns are displayed from left to right within the line item area of the form by typing a number into the “Order” field. The columns will be arranged and displayed from left to right from the lowest to the highest number.
To apply print settings to the printed version of the template, click the “Print” tab. On this tab, you can specify default print settings for the template, if desired.
After performing additional customization on the form template, you can click the “Layout Designer…” button to change the display of elements within the printed version of the form template within the “Layout Designer” window. Alternately, you can click the “OK” button to return to the “Basic Customization” window.
for evaluation
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Customizing Forms
17.4- The Layout Designer:
The “Layout Designer” window lets you change the appearance and placement of data fields, text boxes, labels, and images within the printed version of the form template. Within the “Layout Designer”
window you will see the printed version of the form within the main screen, surrounded by a ruler at the left and top sides for measurement purposes. You should also see the margins of the printed version of the form. There is also a grid displayed onscreen that you can use to align onscreen objects. You can scroll the content within the window to view the objects within the printed version of the form template.
There is a toolbar at the top of the window that contains buttons that allows you to manipulate the selected objects within the window. At the bottom of the window you will see the name of the currently selected object, the current magnification level, the placement of the selected object onscreen, and its dimensions. There are also two buttons, named “Margins…” and “Grid…” that allow you to control the appearance of the margins and grid within the window. You also have a checkbox for “Show envelope window,” which you can check in order to display two areas within the window where window envelopes will display billing and return address information. This can assist you in placing that data within the correct areas within the form if you intend to use window envelopes for mailing these forms.
You can change the magnification level of the “Layout Designer” window by clicking the “In” and
“Out” buttons within the “Zoom” button group in the toolbar at the top of the window to increase or decrease the size of the area shown onscreen.
As you learn how to make changes to the objects within the “Layout Designer,” you may find that you make a mistake or make change that you do not like. You can click the “Undo” button in the
“Undo/Redo” button group of the toolbar at the top of the window to reverse the changes that you make. If you accidentally click the “Undo” button too many times, you can click the “Redo” button to reapply a change you have accidentally reversed.
After making your changes within this window, you can click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window to save the layout changes and return to either the “Basic Customization” or “Additional Customization” window, depending upon which window you were previously viewing before you clicked the
“Layout Designer…” button. Note that you can also click the “Cancel” button, if needed, to cancel any layout changes you made and return to the previously opened customization window. In the next few lessons within this chapter, we will examine the tasks that you can perform within the “Layout Designer” window.
Sample-
for evaluation
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Customizing Forms
17.5- Changing the Grid and Margins in the Layout Designer:
Before you begin changing the layout of objects within the “Layout Designer” window, you should ensure that the margins and the grid shown onscreen are set as needed. The margins and grid aid you in placing the objects into the correct positions within the form so that they will appear correctly when printed.
To change the margin settings for the form, click the “Margins…” button at the bottom of the window to open the “Margins” dialog box. Here you can input the desired margin width in inches into the “Top,”
“Bottom,” “Left,” and “Right” fields shown. After settings the margins for the printed form, click the “OK”
button to apply them to the view shown within the “Layout Designer” window.
You can change the settings of the grid shown within the “Layout Designer” window by clicking the
“Grid…” button at the bottom of the window to open the “Grid and Snap Settings” dialog box. In this dialog box, you can hide the display of the grid within the “Layout Designer” window by removing the checkmark from the “Show grid” checkbox. If you do not want to have the objects within the “Layout Designer” window align themselves to the grid when moving them, then remove the checkmark from the “Snap to grid”
checkbox. This allows for more precise placement of objects onscreen, but makes aligning those same objects more difficult. Finally, you can change the amount of spacing between the lines in the grid by making a selection from the “Grid spacing” drop-down menu. When you have finished changing any grid settings you want, click the “OK” button to apply them to the “Layout Designer” window.
17.6- Selecting Objects in the Layout Designer:
Before you can perform any task within the “Layout Designer” window, you must first learn how to select the form objects shown within the window. You can select an object within the “Layout Designer”
window by clicking it to select it. You can tell when an onscreen object has been selected because it will appear with a border comprised of slashes with eight squares around it. These squares are the resizing handles and are used to resize the object. For some activities you perform within this window, you may also want to select multiple objects simultaneously. When multiple objects are simultaneously selected, actions that you perform are then applied to all selected objects. This is helpful when applying the same formatting to multiple objects or when moving multiple objects as a single group. For example, if you want to move a label and its associated data field from one area of the form to another, you could select them both and then move them together to a new area within the form. To select multiple form objects, click the first object to select it and then hold down the “Shift” key with your free hand. Then click on any other objects that you want to select as part of the group. Then release the “Shift” key when you are finished. To de-select a selected object or objects, simply click into the blank or empty area within the form.
for evaluation
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Customizing Forms
17.7- Moving and Resizing Objects in the Layout Designer:
To move selected objects within the “Layout Designer” window, click and drag the objects from one place to another in the form. To resize a selected object, place your mouse pointer over one of the resizing squares until the mouse pointer turns into a double-pointed arrow. At that point, click and drag with your mouse to resize the selected object in either direction shown by the arrows. Note that you cannot resize multiple selected objects using this method. However, you can make multiple selected objects the same height, the same width, or the exact same size. To do this, first simultaneously select the objects that you want to make the same height, width, or size. Then click either the “Height,” “Width,” or “Size” buttons within the “Make Same” button group in the toolbar at the top of the window. The selected objects will then be the same height as the tallest, the same width as the longest, or the exact same size as the largest, depending upon which of the three buttons you click.
17.8- Formatting Objects in the Layout Designer:
You can change the text, border, and background of a text box or data field within the “Layout Designer” window. To do this, double-click the text box or data field that you want to format to open the
“Properties” dialog box. Alternately, you can select a text box or data field and then click the “Properties…”
button in the toolbar at the top of the “Layout Designer” window to also open the “Properties” dialog box.
Within the “Properties” dialog box you can set the appearance of the text box or data field by changing the settings shown within the “Text,” “Border,” and “Background” tabs. For text boxes and labels, you can enter the text to display into the text box field that appears at the top of the “Properties” dialog box.
To set the appearance of the font used to display the text within the object, click the “Text” tab. In the
“Justification” section, you can select either “Left,” “Right,” or “Center” for the “Horizontal” section and “Top,”
“Bottom,” or “Center” for the “Vertical” section to set the horizontal and vertical text alignment. Note that if you want to indent the first line of text within a text box, then click the “Indent First Line of Text” checkbox within the “Horizontal” section. To select the font used to display the text within the object, click the “Font…”
button to open the “Example” dialog box. Here you can change the “Font,” “Font style,” Size,” “Effects,” and
“Color” of the text within the object by making your choices from the fields within this dialog box. When you have finished setting the font attributes, click the “OK” button to apply them and return to the “Properties”
dialog box. You can set the font color for the object within the “Text” tab by clicking the “Color” button shown to open the “Change Color” dialog box. Here you can select any color you want for the font, and then click the “OK” button to return to the “Properties” dialog box.
To change the border of the selected object, click the “Border” tab within the “Properties” dialog box.
Then choose the sides of the object to apply a border to by checking the “Top,” “Bottom,” “Left,” and “Right”
checkboxes, as desired. If you apply a border to the object, you can select the increment used to round the corners of the borders by making a selection from the “Rounded Corners” section. You can select the desired border pattern to use from the “Pattern” section, as well as select a desired border thickness from the “Thickness” section. You can click the “Color” button to open the “Change Color” dialog box. Here you can select a color for the border, and then click the “OK” button to return to the “Properties” dialog box.
To set a background color for the object, click the “Background” tab within the “Properties” dialog box. Then check the “Fill Background” checkbox. After checking this checkbox, click the “Color” button shown to open the “Change Color” dialog box. Here you can select any color you want for the background of the object, and then click the “OK” button to return to the “Properties” dialog box.
After you have finished applying any formatting settings that you want the object to have, click the
“OK” button within the “Properties” dialog box to apply your changes to the selected text box or label.
Sample- for evaluation
purposes
only!
Customizing Forms
17.9- Copying Objects and Formatting in the Layout Designer:
You can easily copy a selected object within the “Layout Designer” window by clicking the “Copy”
button within the toolbar at the top of the window. The copy of the selected object will then appear slightly down and to the right of the original. You can then move the copy to a new place within the window and edit it as needed.
You can also copy the formatting properties of a selected object and then paste only the formatting
You can also copy the formatting properties of a selected object and then paste only the formatting