To meet the needs of both regular report authors and financial report authors, Report Studio provides distinct custom user interfaces that contain reporting features relevant to these roles.
Access to each authoring mode is determined by the permissions you have to secured functions and features. For more information, see the Administration and Security Guide.
The Professional authoring mode gives users access to the full range of Report Studio functionality. In this mode, you can create any report type, including charts, maps, lists, and repeaters, using any data source (relational or multi-dimensional). Professional authoring mode contains a superset of the features available in the Express authoring mode. However, you cannot view live data.
The Express authoring mode provides a simplified and focused Report Studio interface. It is designed for non-technical users to create traditional financial and management statement reports. Express authoring mode allows access only to dimensionally-modeled data and uses a member-oriented data tree.
This authoring mode allows you to see live data and supports only crosstab reports. It contains a subset of the features available in the Professional authoring mode.
When you are in the Express authoring mode, if you open a report that was authored in the Professional authoring mode, you can see but cannot modify objects that can be inserted only in the Professional authoring mode, such as charts, maps, and lists.
If you have access to both the Professional and Express authoring modes, you can switch between the two from within Report Studio.
You may want to start authoring your report in the Express authoring mode to see live data and to easily create your report layout. Then you can switch to the Professional authoring mode to add more information, such as charts and multiple pages.
From the View menu, click Authoring Mode and select a mode.