Oracle Report Layout

Confine Mode Vs. Flex Mode

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful      

Praise be to Allah, blessing and peace be upon our prophet Mohammed, his family and his companions. After that,

 This is a reminder upon request to Oracle developers concerning dealing with two main component modes of  Oracle Report  layout.

•        Confine Mode.
•        Flex Mode.

       These two modes  control  the management of  your report frames and fields. wizards can do the initial layout but wizards are always unsatisfied; you must modify the layout manually. Here comes the need to recognize the functionality of Confine and Flex modes to deal with them efficiently.

     Confine Mode

On: child objects cannot be moved outside their enclosing parent objects.

Off: child objects can be moved outside their enclosing parent objects.

         (it is on by default).

     Flex Mode

On: parent borders "stretch" when child objects are moved against them

Off: Parent borders remain fixed when child objects are moved against

        (it is on by default).

Note:  

     I do really recommend to backup any Oracle Report before any changes in the object  report layout at least for its current acceptable layout status.

  Confine Mode Practice:

e.g. In order to move any report object from one parent frame to another:

1.  Select the object.  
2.  Set Confine Off. 
3.   Move the object to the desired location.    
4.  Set Confine On.

  Flex Mode Practice:

     If flex is on, then a lot of stuff may move when you move an object.

 Set it to off to see the difference

 Recommendation:  

       while working in the layout DO NOT maximize the report layout page. Divide your visible computer screen between the report object navigator and your report layout.

      This enable you to efficiently compare  between your report object layout page and the actual position of each report object exists in the report builder hierarchy .

     Any improper position of any report object in the layout will result in improper position of  the report hierarchy tree. This leads to run time error. This way you instantly undo any improper position before it's too late. Oracle reports undo changes just once for only  the last one.  This way helps in  minimizing  the lost time and efforts spent in fixing such layout problems.

    Learn more about:

         A Report With No Data

·          Call Oracle Report 6i From Forms 

·          Calling a secured Oracle Report 10g

Hope this helps...

My success only comes from Allah, pls. note your comments and suggestions are great 
help for me in progress thanks in advance.