The Report Editing Process

To display successfully, all reports in Solar Writer need to have a Project file (which contains various report settings including the report title etc), and a Binary file (which contains the actual compiled text for the report).

The Source file for a report is not needed for the report to be displayed, it is only needed if you want to modify the text for a report (at the source), thus permanently changing the text for every subsequent display of the report

To get any changes you have made to the source text for a report (by changing the text in the Source file) to be actually used, you compile the Source file with the changed text in it using the Solar Writer compiler. This takes the text from the Source file and uses it to create a new Binary file for the report, which then contains your changed text.

The Project file and the new Binary file are the two files that are then used when displaying the report.

Making a copy of a Report

Therefore, to create a copy of an existing report so that you can modify the source text in it (for subsequent use every time you display the report), you need to make copies of both the Project file for the report, and the Source file - and save these files under different names. Then you can change the text in the Source file, compile it into a new Binary file, and then Solar Writer will use your new Project file & Binary file to display your new report text.

All reports supplied with Solar Writer come with a Project file, but not all reports necessarily come with the Source file itself. However for those reports that do come with a Source file (*.txt type), e.g. the Modern report, then you can successfully make a full copy of the report, and it's text will be able to be changed on a permanent basis.

Apparent Report Copy

You can just copy the Project ("*.swp" type) file of a report, and it will appear that have created another 'report' - as it will in fact be available to be selected in Solar Writer. It may seem then that you have successfully copied the entire report, but this is not the case.

THEREFORE: While you can readily copy any report's Project file and give it a different name, thus creating a new report entry in the list of reports in Solar Writer, basically that is all that you have done by doing that - just created a new entry only. The new Project file will still utilize the same Binary file that the original report used, and the same text will be displayed, even when you select your 'new' report in Solar Writer

There are two more essential steps you must make to complete the copying of  a report - copy the Source file, and then compile the Source file

>> Creating your own Report by Copying an Existing Report

As explained above you can make a copy of a report's files to then be able to modify the title and text etc in that report, without altering the original report text. You have two basic choices here - copy a report you have purchased (e.g. the "Modern" report) or copy a report that is always included with Solar Writer specifically for this purpose.

The specific report supplied to help you create a new report with all your own text in it, without having to create a new report completely from scratch (from a blank sheet in other words) - is called the 'Custom' report. This report's Project file (called ‘custom.swp’) contains the basic project settings. The other file is the Source file which is where you can write your interpretations text (called custom.txt). 'Custom.txt' does not contain any actual interpretations, but includes all of the keyword lines etc necessary for you to immediately start entering your own interpretation text. This means all the specifically technical side of the Source file has already been taken care of. This Source file allows you to create a new report based on the same structure of the Solar Writer - Modern’ report.

Alternatively, if you own a report which includes the source text (such as the ‘Solar Writer - Modern’ report), then you can copy this report instead if you prefer. A new report created from the 'Modern' report will be a fully fledged "ready to go" report, initially with identical structure and also interpretation text to the 'Modern' report you copied. You can then edit only those parts of the interpretation text in the Source file that you wish to, to create your own version of the report.

>> To make a copy of the "Custom" report

1.Copy "custom.swp" to "MyReport.swp"                                        ("custom.swp" is in Solar Writer’s main folder)

2.Edit "MyReport.swp" (using any text editor) to alter the report Caption & Title to "My Report". (At this stage, only change the words after the "=" sign for Caption & Title). The lines should be changed to ...

•Caption=My Report

•Title=My Report

3.Save the file.

To demonstrate how this step alone has created a new report entry, try now selecting "My Report" (‘myreport.swp’) as a report in Solar Writer. In the "Select Report" dialog box you will see your new report entry and be able to select it. Now exit from Solar Writer.

1)Copy "custom.txt" to "MyReport.txt"                                ("custom.txt" is in the SOURCE subfolder under Solar Writer’s main folder)

2)Edit "MyReport.swp" again, and this time you will need to change the words after the "=" sign for BinaryFile and SourceFile.to ....

•BinaryFile=c:\solwrite\myreport.bin                                (this is assuming you installed Solar Writer into the suggested default folder)

•SourceFile=c:\solwrite\Source\myreport.txt                        (this is assuming you installed Solar Writer into the suggested default folder)

(If you want to at this point see Solar Writer Project Files for a full explanation of the "*.swp" file layout).

What we have done here is tell Solar Writer that the Source file (where the source text for the report can be found) is in MyReport.txt in the SOURCE subfolder of Solar Writer's main folder. This will then be the default location for the Source file and will displayed as the default "Source Text Definition File" when in the "Text Compiler" dialog.

We have also told Solar Writer that the Binary file for this report is MyReport.bin and can be found in Solar Writer's main folder, and to use the text in this binary file when displaying the report. Additionally, that whenever this Source file is compiled, the default binary file to put the compiled text into is this same file called MyReport.bin - and to put it in Solar Writer's main folder (c:\solwrite) - and this will be displayed as the default "Output Compiled Report File" when in the "Text Compiler" dialog.

The report is not properly operational yet however. While we have told Solar Writer where the binary file will be able to be found, it doesn't actually exist yet. For that to happen we will need to compile MyReport.txt. If you wish to at this point, you can start Solar Writer and select the report again (MyReport.swp), then compile this report. That would create MyReport.bin (and another necessary file MyReport.ind), and now you would be able to display report text for any created or opened chart using this report.  See Compiling for how to compile the report.

Whether you have compiled the report or not yet, we are now all set to be able to edit the text in the Source File (MyReport.txt) to make your own changes - this is where you can create your own interpretations text. You can do this with Windows Notepad (usually in Start button, then Programs, then Accessories) or any other text editor. Make sure Solar Writer is closed first before you do this.

Just open MyReport.txt and make the changes you want to the interpretation text. See Input File Layout for an explanation of what the rules are for creating/editing the text in a Source file.

Once you have made changes to the Source file interpretations text (in this case MyReport.txt), save and close the file, then load Solar Writer up and select the report 'My Report' again.

At this point you need to compile the report ('MyReport.txt') so you will be able to see those changes in any report you generate. Click on the Report menu, then the Compile option, then in the "Text Compiler" dialog box click on the Compile button. See Compiling for more information.

Note: Of course, the name "MyReport" is used here for illustration purposes only - you may use any name you prefer.

>> To make a copy of the "Modern" report

If you own the "Modern" report, then you can make a copy of it as follows:

1)Copy "modern.txt" to "MyModernReport.txt"

2)Copy "modern.swp" to "MyModernReport.swp"

3)Edit "MyModernReport.swp" (using any text editor) to alter the report Caption, Title, BinaryFile.and SourceFile - similar to above. (See Solar Writer Project Files for a full explanation of the "*.swp" file layout).

4)Edit "MyModernReport.txt" (using any text editor) to alter the report text itself.

The file "modern.swp" can be found in Solar Writer’s main folder. The file "modern.txt" can be found in the SOURCE subfolder under Solar Writer’s main folder.

Once you have done this, you can select "MyModernReport" ("mymodernreport.swp") as a Solar Writer report. However, you will need to compile "MyModernReport.txt" before seeing any changes in "MyModernReport.txt" that you have or might wish to make -. See Compiling for how to do this.

Note: The process for copying & editing the "Modern" report files is exactly the same as outlined above for the "Custom" report, except you are dealing with different files and correspondingly different file names. But the principles of the process are exactly the same. If you haven't already, it may help your understanding of what you're doing if you read through that first.