Section Types

Overview

Reports are built from sections stacked vertically down the page. Add as many as you need, in any order, and each one renders in sequence on export. Seven section types cover the common building blocks of a business document.

Text

Rich text for headings, paragraphs, and labels. Apply inline formatting — bold, italic, and underline — anywhere in the content.

Use text sections for cover-page titles, narrative paragraphs, signoffs, and any prose that frames the data around it.

Reference inputs inline with variable syntax. Both forms work:

Report period: {{reportDate.range}}
Prepared for: {{customer}}

Section-level styles control font size, weight, color, and alignment. A text section stays on a single page and does not split across pages — keep paragraphs scoped to one page worth of content.

Table

A live-query data table that pulls from your connected data source. Tables paginate automatically: rows flow across pages based on measured row heights, so a long result set spans as many pages as it needs without manual breaks.

Use tables for line items, transaction listings, ledger details, and any tabular data that benefits from row-by-row presentation.

Configuration options include density, header style, grid lines, striped rows, text wrapping, totals row, and whether the header repeats on continuation pages. Turn on Hide section under When empty to leave a table out of the printed report whenever it has no rows; it still shows on the canvas, so you can see it while you edit. Text wrapping affects how many rows fit per page — wrapped cells are taller, so fewer rows fit. See Table formatting for the full list.

Matrix

Grouped rows with subtotals, and optional column levels. A Matrix is the section for banded reports: purchases by type, then group, then material, with a subtotal for each group and a grand total at the end. Add column levels, such as months or locations, to spread each measure across the page.

You build a Matrix in the full-screen editor, with the same row, column, and value shelves as a Matrix on a dashboard, plus its totals and labels. Accept brings it back to the page.

A report prints the whole Matrix with every level expanded, because a printed page can't expand a row. To print fewer rows, remove a row level or narrow the section with an input. Subtotals and grand totals print exactly as they're calculated from your data, so the total of an average or a ratio is the true total for its group, not a sum of the rows above it.

A Matrix prints like a finished report. Each row level gets its own column, and a group's label prints once, at the top of the group. Each group closes with its total row, shaded and set in heavier type, and the grand total sits between a top rule and a double rule. Numbers print with thousands separators and a fixed number of decimals: a measure you haven't formatted shows two decimals, or none when all its values are whole numbers.

Two print settings in the section's side panel change the layout without changing the Matrix itself:

Row labels: Columns puts each row level in its own column. Indented puts every level in one column, indented under its parent, which leaves more room for column levels.
Subtotals: After group prints each total below its group. Before group prints it above.

Because these belong to the report, a Matrix you copy from a dashboard prints this way too, and its dashboard layout stays as it was. Total labels, including {member} labels, and skipped one-row subtotals come from the Matrix itself, so the report prints them the way the dashboard shows them. See Totals.

Like a table, a Matrix can be hidden while it's empty: turn on Hide section under When empty.

Matrix sections paginate like tables: rows flow across as many pages as they need, and the column headers repeat on every page. Page breaks fall where a reader expects them: a total never starts a page, a group's heading never ends one, and a group's first row is never left alone at the bottom of a page. When a page starts in the middle of a group, it repeats the group's label, marked "(cont.)". With Indented row labels, it repeats the parent rows above it. Document inputs apply to a Matrix the same way they apply to tables.

Wide Matrices

A Matrix wider than the page prints in column bands. Each band is as wide as the page, repeats the row labels, and carries a caption that says which columns it holds, such as "Region: West to Grand Total (4 to 5 of 5)". A column's measures always stay together, so a region's Profit and Sales print in the same band. The row labels get the room they need to print on one line, up to about a third of the page.

Every band prints the same rows on its pages, so you can lay them side by side. Band order in the section's side panel sets the page order:

Across, then down (the default): each set of rows prints in every band before the next set, so the pages for the same rows come one after another.
Down, then across: the first band runs through every row, then the next band starts again from the top.

The side panel tells you how the Matrix prints, for example "Prints in 2 bands on Letter portrait". When landscape fits it in fewer bands, it offers Use landscape. The report never changes your page on its own.

A report prints up to 6 bands. If a Matrix needs more, or a single column is too wide to sit beside the row labels, the section says why, and the report can't be exported until it fits: use landscape or a larger page, show fewer columns with an input or filter, or move a column level to the rows.

A Matrix section prints up to 5,000 rows. If a Matrix has more, the section tells you, and the report can't be exported until it fits, so a report never goes out with part of a Matrix.

Pivot Table

An aggregated pivot table with the same query setup as a table section. Pivot tables paginate across pages the same way tables do.

Use pivot tables when readers need totals grouped by one or more dimensions — revenue by region by month, units by category by quarter, and similar cross-tabs.

KPIs

Headline numbers printed together: cash and check payments beside a purchase table, ticket counts, a period total. A KPI section holds up to eight KPIs, and each one is its own query with its own dataset, measure, filters, and number format, so you can place figures from different datasets side by side.

Choose how the section prints:

Tiles place up to six KPIs in a single row, each with its label, value, and comparison.
Lines list label and value pairs in one or two columns, like the totals block of a statement.

When a KPI compares against the previous period or a target, tiles print the change and the comparison value under the number, and lines print the change beside the value. Numbers always print in full: if a value or its comparison can't fit its tile or line even at a smaller size, the export stops and tells you which KPI to adjust, so a report never goes out with a clipped figure. Switching to lines, using fewer KPIs, or choosing a compact number format fixes it.

Document inputs apply to every KPI in the section, the same way they apply to tables. If a KPI needs an input that hasn't been set, it shows which one, and the report can't be exported until you set it.

To edit a KPI, select the section and choose Edit next to the KPI in the side panel, or click the KPI on the page. The editor opens full screen; Accept brings your change back to the page. Use Add KPI to add another one. A KPI section always stays on one page.

Overview

Text

Table

Matrix

Wide Matrices

Pivot Table

KPIs

Spacer

Page Break

Reordering sections

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