Options - Options ~ Page Styles

The Page Styles page of the Options dialog is where you can create or select a page style that suits your business. Use this page to add decorative elements such as borders, lines and color to your invoice, as well as adjust the font settings and move text elements around the page to create the invoice look you need.

Select a Template

Select a Template from the template thumbnails to set the pre-styled decorative elements.
Express Accounts provides the following page style options:

Default This is a simple black and white template without extra design elements.
Custom Select this option to create your own page style from scratch. When you select this option, the last saved custom invoice options you set will appear in the settings.
Pre-styled List The list of pre-styled invoices, including Blue Trim, Blue Velvet, Citrus Splash, etc., allow you to select an invoice that is already configured with a colorful, professional look. It is possible to customize a pre-styled invoice by selecting the template from the list, then making any necessary changes to the settings.

Preview Template

Click the Preview Template button to save your current settings and view your template. Any change you make to the page style can be viewed by clicking this button.

Customize Template

Borders

The borders section allows you to place a border around your entire invoice, or to add lines to distinguish the upper and lower sections of your invoice.

None This option does not create a border.

Border The options here allow you to apply borders with thick or thin lines, single or double, in either of the colors you selected in the above Colors section.

Header and Footer The Header and Footer options allow you to style the top and bottom of your invoice separately if you do not what a border around the entire invoice. The selections for Header and Footer allow you to apply thick or thin lines, single or double, in either of the colors you selected in the above Colors section.

Header style appears above all text

Check this option if you want the lines in the header to appear above any text on the top line of the invoice. When it is unchecked, the top line will be in line with the top text of the invoice, which gives another design option.

Text

The text attributes section is where you can specify how you want text to appear on the invoice. The attributes that you can change include the font, font size, font style, color, and alignment. See the topic for Text Attributes in this manual for more information on each text option.

Use global text attributes

Select this option if you want to apply the same text style to the entire invoice.

Set styles for each text section

Select this option to apply different text options to individual text sections. The sections are:

Invoice Title - This is the Invoice title that appears at the top of the invoice, if you select to show the title.
Company Name - Adjusting the attributes for the company name affects only how your company name appears, not the company address and contact information, which is part of the "All Other Text" section below.
Heading Text - This adjusts heading text such as the Bill to and Ship to labels, and the column headings in the items table.
All Other Text - This adjusts the text in the invoice details, company address and contact information, and billing and shipping addresses.

Accents

The text block accents section is where you can add a border, color block, or lines around specific areas of text on your invoice.

Use global text block accents

Selecting this option will apply the same text accents to each text section on the invoice.

Set accents for each text block

Select this option to apply different accents to individual text blocks. The sections are:

Invoice Title - This is the Invoice title that appears at the top of the invoice.
Invoice Details - This is the block of text that describes the due date, salesperson, invoice number, etc.,
Company Info - This text block includes the Company heading, address and contact details. Check the Link Company Logo to this text block option to ensure your company logo always appears to the left of this text block.
Bill To and Ship To - the billing and shipping addresses.
Item Table Heading - this is the heading of each column on the items table.
Remittance Slip - refers to the remittance slip at the bottom of the invoice, when this option is turned on from the Options ~ Invoice Content page.

Positioning

The header block positioning section allows you to place blocks of text in specific areas around the top of the invoice print-outs. You see a grid structure of pull-down menus on the screen, which visually represents the rough placement of the selected block of text. For example, to make your company information appear in the upper right corner, you would select Company Info from the top right drop menu.

Colors

Color #1 and Color #2

Click one of the color buttons to change the color scheme for the invoice. Many of the style settings refer to the colors selected here.

When the Color dialog opens, select from one of the basic colors, or for more advanced options, click the Define Custom Colors button. In the expanded area, you can either select from an expansive color palette, or enter an RGB code. When you have chosen your custom color, click the Add to Custom Colors button and click OK to apply the color selection to the invoice.

Items List

Shade every other line on the item list

Check this box if you would like every other line in the invoice list to be shaded, providing for increased readability when mulitple items are present in the list.