Tutorial: Create and modify a report

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create a report from a table in a file geodatabase and then modify it to meet additional needs.

In this scenario, you are a GIS analyst for a leading orange juice sales company. Your manager has requested that you generate a sales report for a stakeholder meeting the following morning that contains sales data by county subregion. You have been given a file geodatabase table that contains the second quarter sales information for the three counties under your jurisdiction. However, the focus of this meeting is on Imperial County only, because the stakeholders are considering withdrawing from that region. The stakeholders asked you to provide a PDF format file of the final report to share with all interested parties.

Get the data

The data for this tutorial is available for download on ArcGIS Online.

1. Go to the item description web page of the report tutorial data on arcgis.com.
2. Click Download to save the file locally.
3. Unzip the downloaded file.

Design the report

First, you need to create a report specific to this scenario. You will use the Create New Report pane to configure the data, apply field grouping and sorting, add summary statistics, and choose a template and styling theme prior to the creation of the report. To learn more about using this pane, see Add a new report to your project.

1. Open ArcGIS Pro. If necessary, sign in to ArcGIS Online.
2. Start a new project without a template.
3. On the Insert tab, in the Project group, click New Report to open the Create New Report pane.
4. In the Create New Report pane, change the Report Name field to Total Sales Q2. To learn more about the settings on this page of the pane, see Set the data source.
5. Under the Data source heading, click the browse button to browse to the Q2_SalesData table in the file geodatabase you previously saved. Click OK.
6. Click Next to continue to the Filter the data options. To learn more about the settings on this page of the pane, see Filter report data.
7. On the Filter the data page, expand the Rows menu and choose Filter by expression.
8. Under Expression, click the New expression button .

   The query builder appears and contains one new clause.

9. In the new clause, set the expression to Where Region is equal to 'Imperial County' and click the validate button .
10. Under the Fields heading, uncheck the OID and Region fields to exclude them from the final report.
11. Drag May_TotalSales so that it falls sequentially between Apr_TotalSales and Jun_TotalSales.
12. Click Next to continue to the Organize the data options. To learn more about the settings on this page of the pane, see Organize report data.
13. On the Organize the data page, under the Grouping and Sorting heading, in the Grouping column, open the (Add item) drop-down menu and select SubRegion. Group sorting is set to Ascending by default.
14. In the Sorting column, open the (Add item) drop-down menu and select RepName. Change the sort direction to Descending so that all representative names are listed from Z to A within each group.
15. Under the Summary statistics heading, define the following field and statistic combinations:

    RepName	Count
    Apr_TotalSales	Sum
    May_TotalSales	Sum
    Jun_TotalSales	Sum

16. Click Next to continue to the Design the report options. To learn more about the settings on this page of the pane, see Design the report.
17. On the Design the report page, under the Display heading, click the Template drop-down menu and confirm the Attribute List with Grouping template is chosen.
18. Click the Styling drop-down menu and choose the Cool Tones styling theme.
19. Click the Margins drop-down menu and choose Narrow.

    For reference, the measurements for the current margin are listed below the Margins menu. Margin areas are cropped in the report view but are visible when the report is exported.

20. Click Finish to generate the report using the current configuration.

The report is added to the project and opened.

Export the report as a PDF

The next step is to export and share the report. A report can be shared as either a PDF file or a report file. In this scenario, your manager has requested a PDF file.

1. Ensure the report view is active. On the Share tab, in the Export group, click Report .
2. On the Export Report pane, browse to the location to save the PDF file.
3. Update or accept the file name.
4. In the Fonts group, confirm Embed Fonts is checked on to support proper display of the exported report. This way, if anyone reading the PDF does not have Esri fonts installed, the content will display correctly.
5. Click Export.

   When the export is finished, the PDF opens in your default PDF viewer. It can then be shared with your manger.

Modify the existing report in the report view

Your manager has reviewed the PDF report and sent it back with some changes. You will now modify your report using the Report ribbon to include the following updates: emphasize the SubRegion, include in the Region field, and sort the representative names in alphabetical order.

1. If necessary, open the Total Sales Q2 report you created earlier. Reports, like other project items, are listed in the Catalog pane and Catalog view in a dedicated category.
2. Click the Group Header: SubRegion section in the Contents pane to activate that section.
3. Click the {SubRegion} element in the view to select it.

   Right-click the Group Header: Field Value Text element in the Contents pane and click the Zoom to Selected Elements button if you encounter difficulty viewing the element.

4. Under Text, on the Format tab, in the Text Symbol group, change Text Symbol Font Style to Bold and Text Color to a dark shade of blue.
5. In the Contents pane, expand the arrow next to Group Footer: SubRegion. To select all the text elements at once, click the first text element in the list and then press Shift while you click the last text element in the list. All the text elements in both the Contents pane and the report view are selected.
6. On the Format tab, in the Text Symbol group, change Text Color to a medium shade of blue.
7. Click the Details section of the report in either the Contents pane or the report view to activate it.
8. On the Insert tab, in the Data group, click the Field button .
9. On the Insert Field Value dialog box, set Field to Region and click OK.
10. In the report view, click in the Details section where the field should appear. Alternatively, you can drag within the activated section to place the field by drawing a box.
11. In the Contents pane, right-click the report title (Total Sales Q2) and click Properties.
12. Click the Grouping and Sorting tab.
13. Change the sorting direction next to RepName to Ascending.
14. Click OK to apply this change.
15. With the report view active, on the Share tab, in the Export group, click Report to create a new PDF that reflects the updates.
16. On the Export Report pane, browse to the location to save the PDF file.
17. Update or accept the file name and check Embed Fonts.
18. Click Export.

    You will be prompted to confirm if you are overwriting the existing PDF file. Open PDF files cannot be overwritten.

The updated report can now be shared with your manager and stakeholders to decide whether to continue selling orange juice in Imperial County.

Summary

In this tutorial you stepped through creating a report from a table in a file geodatabase using the Create New Report pane. This included defining grouping, sorting, summary statistics, selecting a template and styling theme, and setting up the exported page. You updated the properties of elements in an existing report, including text font and color as well as grouping and sorting, and added a new field. Finally, you exported a report as both a new PDF and overwrote an existing PDF.