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<p>Given that the system is built around HTML using the HTTP protocol, this allows the user to
completely customise the look and feel of all HTML pages and reports.</p>

<p>Each report that is produced by the system consists of a header, the body (containing the
information), and a footer.  Whilst the body is customised by the
parameters that are passed to the report, the header and footer
remain constant and can be edited using any HTML editor such as,
amongst others, Microsoft FrontPage.</p>

<p>Each report has an ID number, as follows:</p>

<p>Using these ID numbers, header and footer files can be created in the \data 
folder in the form customheader_x.html and customfooter_x.html, where  x is 
the ID number of the report whose output you want to customise.</p>

<p>For example, suppose we wanted to add your company name to the heading of each telephone bill
you produce.  We know that a telephone bill is a Billing Report whose
ID is 2.  The custom header would therefore need to be a standard HTML 
file in the \data folder named customheader_2.html. The raw HTML for 
such a file may look something like the following:</p>

<html>
	<body>
		<div align="left">
			<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="font-family:Tahoma, Arial; font-size: 9pt">
				<tr>
					<td width="66%" colspan="2">
						<font size="6">Telephone Bill<br></font>
						<font size="5">for<#SSI_PARAM:extngroup><#SSI_PARAM:extension><#SSI_PARAM:account></font>
					</td>
					<td width="34%"><img src="img/cologo.gif" align="right" width="113" height="114"></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td width="33%"></td>
					<td width="33%"></td>
					<td width="34%"><p align="right">Bill enquiries 020 7920 7095</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</div>

		<table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 9pt">
			<tr>
				<td width="20%"><strong>Covering period</strong></td>
				<td width="80%"><#SSI_PARAM:fromdate><#SSI_PARAM:fromtime>&nbsp;<strong>to</strong>&nbsp;<#SSI_PARAM:todate>&nbsp;<#SSI_PARAM:totime></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td width="20%"><strong>Billing Entity</strong></td>
				<td width="80%"><#SSI_PARAM:extngroup><#SSI_PARAM:extension><#SSI_PARAM:account></td>
			</tr>
		</table>

<p>This example uses server-side includes (SSIs) which are explained later in this section.</p>

<p>The example code would produce an output similar to the following:</p>

<img class="screenshot" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_professional/customisation.png" alt="Customisation" />

<p>When creating header and footer files, it is important to remember that the system
constructs the final report from three bits of HTML - the header,
the body, and the footer.  Whilst it is not essential for some web
browsers, you should stick to the HTTP specification where an HTML
page is completely housed in a pair of <HTML>
</HTML> tags.  This means that the report, taken
as a whole consisting of all three parts, collectively subscribes
to this convention.  Your header should contain the <HTML>
tag, whilst your footer should contain the </HTML>
tag.</p>

<p>The system constructs reports in this way to allow maximum flexibility.  For example, the
whole report may be indented by having a <BLOCKQUOTE>
tag in the header and a </BLOCKQUOTE>
tag in the footer.  The resultant report, including the body, will
therefore be indented.</p>