How can I customize a report for the Zetasizer?
3 stumbling blocks for Report Designer (Zetasizer) – the rule of two
The three most common holdups encountered in the report designer feature are listed here.
Not everyone delves into the depth of the Zetasizer software, but of those who do want to take advantage of the report customization features in the ‘report designer’ nearly everyone runs into at least one of these three common mistakes:
1. Folder locations – there are two!
The Zetasizer software is typically installed in a (hidden) Windows directory like C:\Program Files\Malvern Instruments\Zetasizer Software and that’s good. However, if you would like to customize one of the standard report pages, then this is the only place they can be found.
For example, for modification of the Intensity PSD (M).pag report you would have to navigate to the Pages\en-US\Size subfolder in the installation directory. The trick is that customized reports should be kept in a different directory, namely a subfolder in the user documents C:\Users\username\Documents\Malvern Instruments\Zetasizer\Reports\en-US\Size and stored under a different file name.
2. Report names – there are two?
A different file name for the report alone will not make the freshly customized report template displayable. A vital step is to also rename the internal name given the report. This is the name that will appear on the new report if enabled in a specific workspace. If that name is not different, the software will simply only show the standard default report with that internal name. This report name is only shown as an inconspicuous box – but the name needs to be different from other names, preferably the same as the unique file name. If the report name box is not shown, check that it is enabled and displayed under View – Report Name (i.e. there needs to be a checkbox)
The above screenshot shows the place to modify the internal report name.
3. Report views – there are two!
You successfully managed to create your report, add it to your workspace and display it in the software. It looks perfect and you are about to congratulate yourself on this achievement. then you print the report to show your colleagues and alas – the printout looks entirely different from what’s shown on the monitor. Yes, there are two reports within each report, one is the one shown on the screen and the other is the one sent to the printer. While this may seem confusing at first, the reasoning for it was that monitors are typically landscape yet printers typically portrait format. You can switch between the two views within report designer by toggling between View -> Page Layout and View -> Screen Layout. Copy the modifications from one layout into the other, with slight adjustments for monitor/paper size then re-save, and all should be well.
The screenshot above highlights how to switch between Screen Layout and Page Layout. The screen layout is for the monitor, page layout is for printing. Any report you create can be added to any workspace by following the details in FAQ: How to add reports and some updates FAQ-custom-reports-v711.
More details on the report designer can be found in the manual, which is automatically installed with the software. It can be found in Start -> All Programs – >Malvern Instruments -> Zetasizer software -> Manuals -> Zetasizer-Nano-user-manual-English-MAN0485-1-1.pdf and additional parts in the Software update note for report designer.
Previously
- Can I use the Zetasizer for studying…?
- How to print from Zetasizer to PDF
50,00070,800 Zetasizer references- How to use a custom report – video tutorial