Working with the Report Painter 
Working with the Report Painter
Purpose
This process describes the main steps in creating a Report Painter report.
The steps that you carry out to create a Report Painter report may deviate slightly from the following description. This depends on how complex your reports are and whether you are using the standard objects of SAP reporting.
Process Flow
All reports are assigned to libraries. A library is a collection of characteristics, basic key figures, and key figures. Reports that are assigned to a particular library can use only the characteristics, basic key figure, and key figures of that library.
You can either use the standard SAP libraries or create your own.
For more information, see Libraries.
The standard layout determines the layout features of the report and the format of your report data.
If the SAP standard layouts do not meet your reporting requirements, you can create a new standard layout or change an existing one.
You can also adapt the report layout to your individual requirements, and define special section layouts for particular sections of the report.
For more information, see Layout.
A model is a one-dimensional, predefined reporting structure, which you can insert in either the rows or columns of your report.
If you often use the same or similar row or column definitions in your reports, we recommend that you create row or column models.
You must define the row and/or column models that you want to include in your report definition before you define the report.
You can also use the standard models provided by SAP. For more information, see Defining Row and Column Models.
a) Define the report columns.
You define the report columns using the key figures selected for the library that the report uses. The key figures consist of the basic key figure and any characteristics you added.
Alternatively, you can use a column model for your column definition.
For more information, see Defining Columns.
b) Define the report rows.
You define the report rows using the characteristics selected for the library that the report uses.
Alternatively, you can use a row model for your row definition.
For more information, see Defining Rows.
c) Edit and format the report rows and columns in accordance with your requirements. (For example, you can hide rows and columns, and change the column widths and row colors.)
For more information, see Formatting Rows and Columns.
d) Define the general data selection criteria for selecting report data.
The selection criteria are the characteristics used to select data for the entire report. You cannot enter characteristics as data selection criteria if they are already being used in the report rows or columns.
For more information, see General Data Selection.
Once you have defined a report, you assign it to a report group. A report group can contain one or more reports from the same library.
You can assign Report Painter reports and Report Writer reports to the same report groups.
For more information, see Report Groups.
During this step, the system generates the programs necessary for processing the reports.
When you generate a report group, the Report Painter reports are converted into Report Writer format. However, you can only change or display Report Painter reports using the Report Painter tool.
For more information, see Generating a Report Group.
In this step, the system selects the data records specified by the report definition, and outputs them in the specified format.
For more information, see Report Group Execution.