Chapter 5. The Layout Designer

Table of Contents

Components of the Layout Designer
The Autofields
The Grid
The Detailview
Page Selection
Create a new Layout
Set Default Layouts
Add PDF File as Background
Multiple Pages in a PDF File
Switching between Layouts
Pagemode for Textfields
Fonts, Colors and Alignments
The Table
Set Titles of Columnheaders
Set Data Alignment for Columns
Add/Remove/Reposition Columns
Change Backgroundcolor and Gridcolor
Change Fonts and Color for Columns
  1. List of all autofields

  2. Detail view to set position and size

  3. Visibility modes

  4. Show/hide detail view

  5. Add new layout

  6. The layout. Drag a PDF file to set it as background

  7. The table inspector. Only visible when table is in edit mode

  8. Name of the active column

  9. Page selection segments

  10. Dropbox to switch the layout

  11. Controls to configure the grid

Most of the people using a billing software have problems to design their own layouts. The layout designer is based on the ideas of mac users who want to have an easy way to create their own layouts.

The idea is very simple.

  1. Create your invoice layout with your favorite publishing program like adobe illustrator, Pages or Quark express.

  2. Export your work as PDF

  3. Drag the PDF file into the layour designer in Invoice2 to use it as your background

  4. Drag the autofields from the left autofields list into the layout

Components of the Layout Designer

The Autofields

Autofields are variables like invoice number, total price, customer number, etc. with different values for each invoice and quotation.

You can see all possible autofields in the left autofields list in the layout designer view. Drag an entry into the layout. The autofield will then use the values of the selected document.

Note

Please note that autofield values are only be used to give you an idea how your invoice will be shown on the paper. It is not the final value. Sometimes you will see only the last lines of your invoice/quotation while editing the table.

The Grid

The layout designer can show you a grid to make the positioning of autofields easier. At the bottom of the main window you will see some controls to setup the grid.

Click "Show grid" to display the grid. The grid will of course not be printed with your layout.

To align your autofields to the grid, click "Snaps to grid". This will snap your text fields to the grid by moving the text fields with the mouse.

You can set the size of the grid by moving the slider.

The Detailview

To toggle the detail view click the arrow button at the bottom of the main window.

In the detail view you can set the position, size and a page mode for an autofield.

Page Selection

It is important to understand the logic of page modes in Invoice2. You can design the first page and the next pages. Use the segment buttons "First Page" and "Next Pages" to switch the page selection. For more information about page modes and how the layout designer works with the page selections read Pagemode for Textfields.