Text Format

Text Format is a functionality that allows to apply various templates to text. With the help of it you can display your text in different variants, such as money, percents, decimal numbers and phone numbers.

All settings of the text format you can find in Home tab in Text Format panel:


There is a set of standard templates, their settings depend on the localization of operating system, and a form call-button of Text Format in the Text Format panel:


This button allows to set additional format properties:

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Currency Format

For example you want to type a dollar symbol "$", but you use a computer with Russian locale and you have to send a financial report to your colleagues in the USA, using symbol "$". Also you want to type percentages and decimal numbers in this report.

To do it you should choose Currency Format:


This format is applied to text, if you need to use currency designation. With the help of this format you can type currency symbol, in your case it`s a dollar symbol "$". For example you just type "1500" text, highlight the text component and then choose Currency format:


Set the currency symbol you need:

And you get "$1,500".

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Percentage Format

You can type percentages too. For example you have "87" symbols and you need to turn them into "87%". To do it you should highlight the text component and choose Percentage Format. Remember, that the percentage Format multiplies a value by 100:


Next, you should set percentage symbol in format properties:


After that you get the result you need.

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Number Format

Besides, with the help of Number Format you can change number`s format. For example you need to apply a format with division into groups and adding a fractional part for "1500" text. To do it you should highlight the text component and choose Number Format:


Next, you should set necessary number of fractional signs in format properties:

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All of the above formats – Currency, Percentage, Number have the following properties: the number of decimal places, group separator, group size, positive template, negative template and currency template.

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Date Format

Also you can change date format. Suppose you have the same situation - you are in Russia, sitting at a computer, where date is put firstly, then month and year and you need to send a report to your colleagues in the USA, where month is put first and only then date and year. To do it you should type in your text the date you are used to, then highlight the text component, choose Date Format and the date format you need:


A few more words about changing time format. For example you typed text "14:00", but you decided to change it to "2:00 PM" for your American colleagues. To do this you should highlight the text component, then choose Time Format and P.M. format:


And you get the result you need:

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Custom Format

In addition to the above you can format a phone number. For example you need to display a phone number with a code, brackets, dash and so on. To do this you should highlight the text component and choose Custom Format. In this format you can find (###) ### - #### format mask:


Choose it and you will be able to format a phone number as you need. Next, you should make the template you need: +(##) ## - ## - ##, then the numbers from the text appear instead of hashes and you get "+1 (23) 45 - 67 - 89" from "123456789" text.

Indicator

So let`s consider its applying to indicators. To do this, choose an indicator:


Next, go to the Home tab, then Text Format and choose Currency Format:


Set currency symbol and you get:

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Chart

Things are a little bit different with charts. For example at your chart thousands are displayed in the standard way: "1,800"; "1,600", and you want to shorten them and give them a different look, for example like this: "1.8K"; "1.6K". How to do this? Firstly choose a chart:


Next, go to the Properties. You can find 2 properties there: Argument Format and Value Format. Choose Value Format and click on the edge button:


Then at the appeared Text Format form choose Number Format and activate Use Abbreviation property:


And you get a chart with formatted values:


It was value axis (Y). And let`s look at applying Text Format to the argument axis. At an argument axis (X) chart you have axis values as prime numbers and you want to turn them into percentages:


To do this you should choose Argument Format and click on the edge button in properties:


Next, on the opening Text Format window you choose Percentage Format and set percentage symbol:


And you get the result you need:

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Table

In addition, there are tables in dashboards. And you can also apply Text Format to them. For example you have a table with three columns and at one of them you want to apply Percentage Format. Let`s have a look how to do it.

Firstly, choose a table:


Let`s say you want to change Rank column and apply Percentage Format to it. To do this you should open a table editing form.

Next, you should highlight the column:


Click on the dialog box button, then go to the Home tab and in Text Format group choose Percentage Format and percentage symbol:


And you get the result you need:

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We hope this article will help you to understand Text Format features of use, when creating tables, charts, indicators and the like in Stimulsoft report designer. If you have any questions, please contact us – we are always glad to help you!

We are pleased to announce the release of the new version Stimulsoft Reports and Stimulsoft Dashboards 2020.5.1, which is now available for download. This release comes with several improvements including .NET 5.0 compatibility, ability to connect to Google Firebase, support for the Box and Whisker chart, etc.


Expressions in properties
Starting with version 2020.5.1, you can use expressions as values for some properties of report components and dashboards. Depending on the result of calculating the expression, the component property will be set to a specific value. By using expressions as a property value, you can customize the condition of printing a component, the style of its content, and more.



.NET 5.0 compatibility
We are glad to announce that starting from version 2020.5.1 we have added support for the .NET 5.0 RC1 framework for our WinForms and WPF components. Also, the minimum required .NET Core version was increased from 3.0 to 3.1; the minimum version for the .NET Framework remained 4.5. Our Web components support .NET Standard 2.1, which is backward compatible with the .NET 5.0 framework. We closely follow the development of the .NET platform and do our best to ensure that our reporting and analytical components are compatible with the latest technologies.


Bubbles
For the Table element on the dashboard, we added a new column type - Bubbles. Each value in the data column will be represented as a separate bubble, the size of which depends on the value that you set. Bubble colors for positive and negative values can be specified in the style of the current element or by the user in the element editor.



Sharing reports on Facebook and Twitter
In the 2020.5.1 release, we added the Share command. Sharing your report or dashboard is not as easy as ABC! Also, now you can publish it directly to a social network - Facebook or Twitter.



The new chart - Box and Whisker
In the 2020.5.1 release, we have added a new Box and Whisker chart. You may use this type of chart to display groups of numeric data using quartiles. Just add a diagram to your report or dashboard and analyze your data.



The new adapter - Google Firebase
Starting with the 2020.5.1 release, you can get data from Google Firebase. When creating a new data source, select the connection type - Firebase, specify the Data URL and Database secret. After that, all data from the specified data storage will be converted into tables, based on which you may design reports and dashboards.



The new data source - GIS
In the last release, we added the ability to display graphical information on an online map. In the new release 2020.5.1, we decided to go further and developed the ability to create a GIS data source based on WKT or GeoJSON files. You can use the obtained data in online maps to display graphical information.



The new functionality for GIS
In release 2020.5.1, we have improved the GIS map, and now you cannot only display primitives on an online map but also define their color and size. To do this, in the online map editor, you should specify the data columns with the color and size encoding in the appropriate fields. Also, for Point primitives, you can display tooltips as additional information. To make this work, you should specify the data column with the description text in the Description field of the editor. Then, when you hover the cursor over a point on the map, you will see the additional information in the tooltip.



The updated Image element
Starting with the 2020.5.1 release, we have improved the Image element for dashboards. This dashboard element has changed from static to dynamic. Now you can get images from data columns, variables, and files using hyperlinks.



Conditional formatting
In this release, we have expanded the data analysis capabilities for the Table and Progress elements of the dashboard. You can now apply conditional value formatting to these elements.



Sparkline styles
In the previous release, we added a new component for reporting - Sparkline. In this version, you can apply styles to this component. Create a style of the Indicator type, configure it, and use the Component Style property to assign this style to the sparkline.



Sparkline colors in dashboards
You can use sparklines in dashboard tables from the first release of the product. By default, the colors for table sparklines are assigned from the element style. In the 2020.5.1 release, we added the ability to customize table sparkline colors from the element editor. Open the Table editor, select the sparkline column, set the Color parameter to Custom, and specify the colors for the values of this column.



The new map - Oceania
In the release 2020.5.1, we have added a new type of a regional map - Oceania. Now you can use this map for designing reports and analytical panels.



ZUGFeRD v2.1 support
Since 2016, Stimulsoft components support the ZUGFeRD format when exporting to PDF. In the 2020.5.1 release, we added support for the new specification of this format - ZUGFeRD v2.1.

Expressions in properties

In the 2020.5.1 release, we simplified the ability to apply conditional formatting to report components. Now you can specify an expression in the values of some properties of a report component or dashboard item. As a result of calculating this expression, some appearance settings will be applied to the component.


In the new version, using expressions as property values, you can specify a condition:

• to apply a style to the report component, and for the Data bands, you can set the conditions for applying the styles for even/odd lines;
• to change the settings of the Brush and Text Brush properties for report components;
• to change the settings of the Fore Color and Back Color properties for dashboard elements;
• to change the settings for vertical and horizontal alignment properties for text components in reports;
• to apply the Dock Style to the component;
• to change the rotation angle of the content for the Image component.

Besides, we have added support for expressions in properties such as Enabled and Printable. Now you can specify a condition for enabling and disabling a report component or dashboard item. And also, set up the condition for printing report components.

Conditions in Progress element

Competent business analytics gives an opportunity to make rational decisions. With the help of data analytics many companies can track their performance: for instance they can calculate the number of produced product, build sales funnels, analyze financial performance, compare current results with last years results and on the basis of this engage strategic marketing.

Day in and day out, we work on the tools for dashboard and reports development and constantly improve our products. Today we are glad to introduce you a new Progress element`s feature – Conditions, which will be available in the next release 2020.5 version.

This feature has a wonderful property, depending on a chosen condition you can change a current element`s font style, color of its meaning, and track`s color. This is an excellent feature for business analytics and KPI tracking.