Moving and Resizing Design Items
Use
A design item’s location and size is described using coordinates for cell or range of cells in a Microsoft Excel worksheet. To move or resize a design item, you must therefore change the coordinates of the item’s range. Use the Range field, which appears in the properties dialog box for each design item, for these purposes.
Prerequisites
Ensure that you have inserted a design item and configured its data provider before you attempt to move or resize it.
Procedure
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1. In design mode, evoke the properties dialog box for your design item:
○ To access item properties with a mouse, click the icon that represents the item (with your left, or primary mouse button). You may also click with your right (or secondary) mouse button, and choose Properties.
○ To access item properties with the menu, while in design mode choose BEx Analyzer → Design Toolbar → [Item Name] from the menu.
2. In the Range field (located on the first or only tab in the design item’s properties dialog box), configure the coordinates to the item’s location and size.
The Range field initially contains the coordinates to the range of cells you selected when you inserted the design item. The first group of coordinates corresponds to the upper-left cell, and the second group of coordinates corresponds to the lower-right cell of the design item.
For example, a range value of $B$12:$E$13 indicates that you selected cell $B$12 as the upper-right coordinate, and then dragged your mouse to cell $E$13 as the lower-right coordinate, and with that range of cells selected, you inserted your design item. (If your design item has already been populated with results, see Expansion and Clipping, below).
If you selected one cell, the field displays the coordinates for that cell, for example $B$12.
○ To resize a design item, add or enter a different value for the lower-right coordinate.
You can resize a design item by using the drag and drop function also. You select the design item with the primary mouse button, next select the edge of the design item, drag it until item reaches the required size and then drop it by releasing the mouse button. The coordinates of the new range of cells appear automatically in the Range field.
○ To move a design item, enter different values for the coordinate or both coordinates. To move an item to a different sheet, prefix the values with proper syntax to designate the sheet. To move an item from Sheet1 to Sheet2, for example, enter a value such as Sheet2!$E$5:$G$6.
You can move a design item by using the drag and drop function also. You select the design item with the primary mouse button, drag it to the required location and then drop it by releasing the mouse button. The coordinates of the new range of cells appear automatically in the Range field.
3. Choose OK in the properties dialog box to confirm your settings.
4. When you move or resize design items, their contents are deleted and then rebuilt. Refresh the query in order to refresh the results with values from the server (see Refresh / Pause Automatic Refresh).
Expansion and Clipping
Once you switch to analysis mode and the design items populate with results, they typically need to expand to fill more space than you have initially selected when inserting them. In this case, the upper-left coordinate remains fixed, and the lower-right coordinate expands to accommodate the data returned.
For example, even though you selected a range of $B$12:$E$13 when you inserted your analysis grid, when you switch to analysis mode and 100 rows are returned in the results, the second, lower-right coordinate will automatically increase to $E$113 to resize the design item to accommodate the results.
To change the way the coordinates expand, you can adjust the item’s clipping properties. Clipping properties are relevant for the analysis grid, navigation pane, and messages design items. If you set the clipping property to Clip, for example, the lower-right coordinate is retained and the results are clipped, or not displayed, beyond that range. See Analysis Grid, Navigation Pane, and Messages.