Printing Reports

You can create a PDF for a report, a report section, or a report object. The PDF can then be printed.
General Considerations for Printing
Considerations for Printing a Stored Process or Stored Process Report
Print a Report, a Report Section, or a Report Object

General Considerations for Printing

Here are some considerations for printing:
  • Controls are not included in the PDF. However, the information in a control is displayed in the appendix.
  • Info windows, report prompts, section prompts, and prompt containers are not included in the PDF. However, any filters that are applied to report objects in the prompt container are displayed in the appendix.
  • Vertical containers print only the currently selected report object. Horizontal and stack containers might print more than the currently selected report object if there is enough space.
  • Select Expand clipped content to see the all of the content for tables, crosstabs, gauges, and containers with content that is only partially available in the layout of the report section. Each report object is displayed on a separate page at the end of the report.
    Tip
    In the generated PDF, click the Expand icon to see the content that was clipped in the layout of the report section in the designer.
  • If a list table or a crosstab has scroll bars, then some of the scrolled content might not be printed. However, more columns or rows might be printed than are visible in the designer. The print feature attempts to fill the space available on the page in the PDF.
  • A list table or crosstab that is printed from the designer might show more rows than when the same list table or crosstab is printed after the report has been distributed. This happens because the state of the report in the designer is taken into consideration when it is printed. The print feature attempts to match what the user sees in the designer. When you print a report that has been distributed, there is no report state for the print feature to match.
  • If a report object has a high-cardinality filter, and the Show appendix information option is selected, then the filter description might be truncated in the printed appendix.
  • A crosstab with more than 5,000 selected cells cannot be printed.
  • There can be differences in the fonts in a printed report if the fonts that are used to create a report do not match the fonts that are available on the server that generates the PDF.
  • If you want to print from the designer using Mozilla Firefox, you must have Firefox configured to open a link in a new tab instead of in a new window. Instructions for making this change might vary between Firefox releases, so refer to the Firefox documentation. As an alternative, you can use a different supported browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Google Chrome.

Considerations for Printing a Stored Process or Stored Process Report

Here are some key points about printing output from a stored process or a stored process report:
  • Output from a stored process starts on a new page.
  • The stored process must use the %STPBEGIN and %STPEND macros. These macros provide standardized functionality for generating and delivering output from a stored process. For more information, see “Using the %STPBEGIN and %STPEND Macros” in SAS Stored Processes: Developer’s Guide.
  • PDF security must be turned off for a stored process.
  • The stored process report must be configured to produce PDF output. In the stored process that is referenced by the stored process report, set the _ODSDEST variable to PDF. Or, define a stored process parameter for the _ODSDEST variable and configure it with a value of PDF for the stored process report. It is recommended that you also set the _ODSOPTIONS variable to notoc to save processing time and to reduce the size of the PDF produced by the stored process and the final PDF. For more information about ODS options, see “Using the %STPBEGIN and %STPEND Macros” in SAS Stored Processes: Developer’s Guide.

Print a Report, a Report Section, or a Report Object

By default, an appendix is included in the PDF if the report, report section, or report object has descriptions, filters, warnings, errors, or display rule legends.
To create a PDF that can be printed for a report:
  1. Select Filethen select Print to PDF, or click the Print button. The Print window is displayed.
  2. Select the Paper size, Orientation, and Margins. Your selections are saved for that report.
    If you select Custom for the paper size, you can specify the Height, and Width of the page. For custom paper sizes, you cannot change the page orientation.
  3. (Optional) Select the Options for your report.
    Here are some details about the printing options:
    • If you select Include a cover page check box, then the cover page provides the name of the report (or the label if the report has not been saved), the date of the print request, the user name, and the number of pages. Click Add a description to enter additional text for the cover page in the Cover Page Description Text window.
      Note: The description for the cover page is not saved if you click Cancel in the Print to PDF window.
    • If you clear the selection for the Include a cover page check box, any additional text that you added for the cover page is discarded.
    • The Show empty rows and columns in tables option is for both list tables and crosstabs.
    • The Show appendix information option is selected by default if the report, report section, or report object has parameters, descriptions, filters, warnings, errors, or display rule legends.
      When the Show appendix information option is specified, and the report, report section, or report object has parameters, descriptions, filters, warnings, errors, or display rule legends, then an appendix is created. Each report object that is selected to be included in the PDF is automatically assigned a value so that you can reference that report object in the appendix. For example, suppose that you select two report objects in the Select the items to be printed list. The first report object is assigned the value A1.1 and the second report object is assigned the value A1.2. Suppose that the first report object has a description and the second report object has a filter that has been applied. The first report object’s description is displayed in the appendix under the A1.1 heading. The second report object’s filter is displayed in the appendix under the A1.2 heading.
  4. Make your selections in the Select the items to be printed list. You can select the report, the report sections, or the report objects.
  5. Click Print. The PDF is displayed in a browser.
  6. (Optional) If you want to save any changes that you made in the Print window, then save the report.
    Tip
    The print options that you save with the report are used when you distribute the report to other users. Saved print options can impact the appearance of the report.
To print a report section, click the Down Arrow button on the Section tab, and then select Print <section-name> to PDF.
To print a report object, right-click on the report object in the canvas, and then select Print <report-object-name> to PDF. A stored process does not have the same pop-up menu selection.
The following table lists the icons that can appear in the appendix:
Icon
Description
The Filter icon
Indicates that a report object contains a filter.
The Warning icon
Indicates that a report object contains a warning.
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