Printing and PDFs
Set a report's paper, headers, footers and page numbers, then print it from your browser or have Halo make a PDF.
Any report prints, whatever its layout, and shows every page in order. You can print from your browser, or have Halo make a PDF of the published version. In Halo Data, Print follows the edition you have open. Download PDF makes the latest edition. See In email, PDFs and embeds.
Which to use
| Download PDF | ||
|---|---|---|
| Where | Print in the report's … menu | Download PDF in the report's … menu |
| Made by | Your browser | Halo's server, as a job |
| Prints | The draft or the published version, if you can edit. Otherwise the published version | The published version |
| Result | Your printer or your browser's Save as PDF | A file, with a link that works for 7 days |
| Needs | View access | View access to the published version |
Both show your own view of the data: row policies apply to you, so the file holds only what you can see.
Paper
What a report prints on follows its layout:
| Layout | Paper | Sheets |
|---|---|---|
| Paged document | The paper, orientation, margins and bleed you set | One sheet per page |
| Free-form canvas | The canvas's own size | One sheet per page |
| Dashboard grid | Landscape letter, with half-inch margins | Each page starts a new sheet and flows onto as many as it needs |
| Long-form | Portrait letter, with half-inch margins | Each page starts a new sheet and flows onto as many as it needs |
If a report must print on A4 or a certain shape, use a paged document. Only that layout lets you choose the paper.
Headers, footers and page numbers
Turn on Header or Footer under Header and footer in the inspector, with nothing selected. A new header starts with the report's title, and a new footer with when the data was computed and the page number. Leave off the first page keeps a cover clean. In a paged document they sit in the margins, so keep them shorter than the margin. Halo warns you if one runs into the page's content.
Page numbers depend on the layout:
Dashboard grid and long-form: each sheet is numbered in the bottom margin, such as "Page 2 of 5", in a PDF Halo makes and when you print from Chrome or Edge. You don't add anything. Other browsers leave it to their own headers and footers.
Paged document and canvas number pages only where you put a page number. Choose Add, then Page number, usually in the footer. Written as is 3 of 12 or 3, and Before the number adds a word such as "Page".
Data as of, under Add, stamps the page with when its data was computed, or when the version was published. Tells when picks which. It's worth adding to anything that leaves Halo.
Three sheets of a paged report, one under the other: a cover, scorecards above a column chart, and a bar chart with a sentence under it. Each sheet has its data date and page number at the bottom
What prints
Every page, in order, including pages hidden from navigation, whatever the report's navigation.
A tabs element's tab that opens first, and an accordion's sections that open first. See Tabs inside a page.
Charts as sharp vectors, at the size they print. Chart menus don't print.
Elements whole. An element never splits across two sheets: it moves to the next one, and it's never drawn taller than a sheet. In a grid, keep elements shorter than a sheet of landscape letter.
Print from your browser
Open the report and choose Print in its … menu. Halo shows every page in order under a slim bar, which the printout leaves out. The bar says what you're printing. If you can edit the report, that's the version you were looking at, the draft or the published one.
Use your browser's print command, ⌘P. Backgrounds and paper size are set for you, if your browser honors them.
Pressing ⌘P on a public link prints every page too, once they've loaded. Reports print light unless the report fixes dark mode.
Download a PDF
Open a published report and choose Download PDF in its … menu.
Halo says it's making the PDF, with View job to follow it. You can carry on working.
When it's ready, Halo notifies you with a download link. The link works for 7 days, and the file is deleted after that. The job's page has a Download file button for it too, whatever your role.
The job's page says how it went: opening the published version, how long every page took to draw, and the file's size. Download PDF and each file made are in the audit log.
If a PDF fails
The job says at which stage, in plain words. Most are one of these:
| What happened | What to do |
|---|---|
| The page couldn't show the report | Check it's still published and hasn't been deleted |
| It didn't finish drawing in time | Halo waits about 80 seconds, then names what was still loading. Look at that chart's query, or give its dataset an extract |
| PDFs aren't set up yet | No renderer is running. Contact Halo |
A render that couldn't connect or timed out is tried once more on its own.
Send PDFs on a schedule
To email a PDF to people every week or month, see Scheduled email. Each delivery renders from the published version as it stands then.
Public links and embeds have PDF in their header when the report's author turns on They can download the report as a PDF in the Share dialog. Otherwise a public reader can use their browser's print command. See Exports.