In our last post, we’ve described the structure of a report template which Merlin can use whenever you call File > New Report. We have also shown how to change the font size of the reported text.

This post will handle points 2 and 3 of some quick and dirty changes for the reports.

Quick and dirty changes

1. How to change the font size for print or preview.
2. How to change predefined colors.
3. How to add a more specific template description
4. How to change the name of a report

3. How to add a more specific template description

• Open the package of the template you want to change
• Locate the language folders under /Contents/Resources (they end up by lproj)
• If you want to edit the description only in your language, open your language folder (for example English.lproj)
  • If not seeing a folder by your language or the language of the Finder, just select the language on which your Merlin is currently running.
• Open the file “InfoPlist.string” in a text editor (like BBedit, TextWrangler, XCode, etc)
• Locate the line showing:

  PWReportDescription = …

• Edit the value next to it and make sure it is kept in double quotes and the line ends with a ;  For example:

  PWReportDescription = "This report lists next due activities in 8pt text size.";

• Save your changes
• Now you can restart Merlin, call File > New Report and select the edited report template.

It will show the new report description.

4 . How to change the name of a report

• Open the package of the template you want to change
• Locate the language folders under /Contents/Resources (they end up by lproj)
• If you want to edit the description only in your language, open your language folder (for example English.lproj)
  • If not seeing a folder by your language or the language of the Finder, just select the language on which your Merlin is currently running.
• Open the file “InfoPlist.string” in a text editor (like BBedit, TextWrangler, XCode, etc)
• Locate the line showing:

  CFBundleName = …

• Edit the value next to it and make sure it is kept in double quotes and the line ends with a ;  For example:

  CFBundleName = "Next activities";

• Save your changes
• Now you can restart Merlin and call File > New Report.

Merlin will list this report by the just edited name.

Creating a new own report based on an existing Merlin project template

Above actions changed files within Merlin’s application package. They work for you on your Mac, but won’t be available for other Merlin users in your company. They will also be reseted the next time you update your Merlin version. To create a report template of your own to transfer to others and to be independent of updates resetting Merlin’s application package, you need to work a bit differently. This means, you do the same changes but create first a new report template of your own. For more information, check out our next post.