## Chapter 1 Learning the Basics

This section provides an overview of the report design process and environment. The chapter also includes step-by-step procedures for building your first report.

Designing a report involves the following tasks. You do not have to perform all the tasks in the order in which they are presented here, but if you are new to BIRT Report Designer or learning how to design reports, you can use this task list as a starting point.

- Plan the report.
- Start a new report design.
- Specify the data to use.
- Lay out the report.
- Format the report.
- Design a master page.
- Preview and test the report.

For those who do not have report development expertise, it is important to understand that the process of creating a report is iterative rather than linear. You typically perform each task multiple times and in different orders. You might specify the data to use, lay out data, preview the report, then modify the data set, change the layout, preview the report again, and so on, until you are satisfied with the report's contents and appearance.