Format a Paragraph Programmatically

You can use DOM API format objects to format Paragraph objects or format properties to specify commonly used paragraph formats. This example uses:

import mlreportgen.dom.*;
d = Document('test','html');

p = Paragraph('Indent a half inch and space after 12 points.');
p.Style = {OuterMargin('0.5in','0in','0in','12pt')};
append(d,p);

p = Paragraph('Centered paragraph');
p.HAlign = 'center';
append(d,p);

close(d);
rptview(d.OutputPath);

Use these objects and properties to format a paragraph.

Format Paragraphs for Microsoft Word Using Template Styles

You can format a paragraph using a style in a Word template. You can add styles to the template or modify existing ones.

To add a paragraph style:

For more information about working with Word styles, see Modify Styles in Microsoft Word Templates.

Format Paragraphs Using PDF or HTML Template Styles

You can format a paragraph using a style in an HTML or PDF style sheet in your template. You can add styles to the template or modify existing ones.

Define the style using a selector on a p element. This example defines a BodyPara paragraph style.

p.BodyPara {
  font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
  font-style: normal;
  font-size: 11pt;
  color: black;
  margin-left: 0.5in;
}

You can use any CSS properties and selectors in HTML templates. For PDF templates, you can use a subset of CSS properties and selectors. See Modify Styles in PDF Templates.

For more information about using HTML styles with DOM objects, see Modify Styles in HTML Templates.

Apply Styles to Paragraph Objects

Apply a template style to a Paragraph object either as the second argument in a Paragraph object constructor or by setting the StyleName property on the paragraph to a template style.

Suppose that you have defined styles named BodyPara and MyTitle in a template. This example first specifies a style name in a Paragraph constructor. It then specifies the style in a Paragraph object StyleName format property. This example assumes both styles are defined in MyTemplate.

import mlreportgen.dom.*;
rpt = Document('MyReport','html','MyTemplate');

% Specify style name using an argument when you create the Paragraph
p = Paragraph('Format this paragraph using a body style.','BodyPara');
append(rpt,p);

p = Paragraph('This paragraph is formatted using a title style.');

% Specify  style name using a property on the paragraph
p.StyleName = 'MyTitle';
append(rpt,p);

close(rpt);
rptview(rpt.OutputPath);

Override Template Formats

You can use programmatic formats to override the paragraph formats defined in a template-based paragraph style. Suppose that you define a paragraph style named BodyPara in your Word template and set the KeepWithNext property to off. You can override the style in your report program to keep a particular paragraph on the same page with the next paragraph:

import mlreportgen.dom.*;
rpt = Document('MyReport','docx','MyTemplate');

p = Paragraph('Keep this body paragraph with next.','BodyPara');
p.Style = {'KeepWithNext'};
append(rpt,p);

p = Paragraph('Next paragraph.');
append(rpt, p);

close(rpt);
rptview(rpt.OutputPath);