Web Intelligence Default Paper Size

Posted on by EV Technologies

Like the definition of “football” and the use of the metric system, Americans also differ from most of the world on the definition of a standard paper size. Most of the world uses a standard paper size called A4 for letters, which is why SAP has chosen that paper size as its default for SAP BusinessObjects. But in the United States (and also Canada), a different standard exists for letter-sized paper.

Here are the original Web Intelligence paper size defaults for BI 4.x. Notice that the paper size is A4, an international standard.

As you can see in the following table, A4 paper is almost but not quite the same size as the letter-sized paper used in the United States.

To insure that users have accurate document printing, it’s important for organizations in the United States to change the Web Intelligence default paper size settings. You’ll want to make this modification before go-live, as the paper size definition becomes part of the Web Intelligence document. This means that documents created before the page size modification will still have the default A4 paper size.

You’ll need to restart the web application server (ours is Apache Tomcat) as part of this modification, so you’ll need to coordinate downtime on a live customer system.

The style sheet’s default location is C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\images\WebIDefaultStyleSheet.css. You’ll want to keep a backup copy of the original CSS file. You’ll also want to keep a backup copy of the modified CSS file, as support packs and patches frequently restore the default file.

Here are the default out-of-the-box settings for A4 paper.

REPORT {
page-format-dimension-width:29764; /* 21.0cm Printing page width */ /* Units available: centimeters (cm), millimeters (mm), inches (in), and metric (no unit) */
page-format-dimension-height:42094; /* 29.7cm */ /* '...height:1.0in;' equals '...height:2.54cm;' and equals '...height:3600;' */
page-format-margin-top:2835; /* Printing page margin */
page-format-margin-left:2835;
page-format-margin-bottom:2835;
page-format-margin-right:2835;
page-records-horizontal:20; /* Number of records displayed in one page in quick display mode (approx., the total number of columns in tables) */
page-records-vertical:100; /* Number of records... The same for rows */
}

Notice in the comment field that we can use inches (in) as a unit of measurement, so we can make an easy-to-read modification.

REPORT {
page-format-orientation:portrait; /* landscape or portrait */
page-format-dimension-width:8.5in;
page-format-dimension-height:11.0in;
page-format-margin-top:0.70in; /* Printing page margin */
page-format-margin-left:0.75in;
page-format-margin-bottom:0.70in;
page-format-margin-right:0.75in;
page-records-horizontal:20;
page-records-vertical:100;
}

Although it doesn’t appear in the original style sheet, notice that we can add a property for page orientation, portrait or landscape. We can also change the header size and footer size. Here are the default settings, in centimeters:


/* Settings for PAGE_HEADER */
REPORT > PAGE_HEADER {
min-height:1.40cm;
background-fill:color;
background-color:#ffffff;
background-type: htile; /* Possible values: box(image embedded in its container), tile(repeat horiz. and vert.), vtile, htile(repeat horizontally), stretch(image fits its container) */
background-v-align: top; /* Possible values: top, center, bottom */
background-h-align: left; /* Possible values: left, center, right */
}


/* Settings for PAGE_FOOTER */
REPORT > PAGE_FOOTER {
background-color:#ffffff;
background-fill:color;
min-height:1.20cm;
}

And here are modified page header and page footer settings in inches.


/* Settings for PAGE_HEADER */
REPORT > PAGE_HEADER {
min-height:0.55in;
background-fill:color;
background-color:#ffffff;
background-type: htile; /* Possible values: box(image embedded in its container), tile(repeat horiz. and vert.), vtile, htile(repeat horizontally), stretch(image fits its container) */
background-v-align: top; /* Possible values: top, center, bottom */
background-h-align: left; /* Possible values: left, center, right */
}


/* Settings for PAGE_FOOTER */
REPORT > PAGE_FOOTER {
background-color:#ffffff;
background-fill:color;
min-height:0.50in;
}

Once you’ve made the desired modifications, restart the web application server (Apache Tomcat) and verify the changes.

Because the modification is made at the web tier, be sure to modify each web application server in your cluster. Also, it’s a good idea to back up both the original and modified WebIDefaultStyleSheet.css files in a safe place, not on the web application server.

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