The Group Label Idea is great… BUT, if you also use columns to allow a user to change the columns in the report, then the Group Label does not adjust to the columns being chosen. This effectively renders it misleading at best or useless at worst.
It works fine if you have a fixed Grid with no changes alowed at run-time. So you have to choose Grid Labels OR user configuraiton of the grid.
Its just another example of a great feature, poorly implemented. (I’ve removed it from all grids).
I get a similar impact(That works with Columns), by colour coding the column headers… that way whatever column is shown it always has the correct shading. This leads me to the suggestion that:
either
Make the Group Label work with other features such as columns
OR
Make it MUCH easier to get a better look and feel by adding ALL field columns into the Fields Configuration screen. That way you can create a good looking grid, without the FAFF of clicking on each field individually. If you think that would be too much for a multi-column editor, then allow users to choose what columns they want to show in this view (Like columns in grids).
OR (God forbid)
You let field formats be setup in the data dictionary (Not just size and masks), that way wherever you use a field it would ALWAYS look the same unless you specifically overrode it.
We spend far too much time clicking a field at a time to get a decent format!
As an aside, Group Label doesnt work with multi record forms. it seems to add an additional column in the wrong place and just screws up the headings