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summary: "Report and document layouts in Business Central: layout types (Word, Excel, RDLC, external, composite), choosing and assigning layouts, themes and header/footer setup, designing Word layouts, Excel and RDLC layouts, and available fonts. It answers how to change the look of sales, purchase and other external documents."
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# Change the look of externally facing documents

> Report and document layouts in Business Central: layout types (Word, Excel, RDLC, external, composite), choosing and assigning layouts, themes and header/footer setup, designing Word layouts, Excel and RDLC layouts, and available fonts. It answers how to change the look of sales, purchase and other external documents.

Path: [Get started](../../get-started.md) > [Get productive in Business Central](../get-productive-in-business-central.md) > Change the look of externally facing documents · tier official · system none · narrative reviewed (checked by Opus)

## Overview

This section explains how to control the content and appearance of reports and externally facing documents such as sales and purchase documents. It begins with an overview of layout types: Word, Excel, RDLC and external layouts, plus composite layouts that combine reusable themes with header/footer layouts.

For day-to-day use, start with the pages on setting the layout a report uses and on assigning document layouts to customers or vendors. Then use the page on getting started with report layouts to copy, export, import and validate layouts. The theme and header/footer page covers consistent branding across Word-based reports.

For design work, separate pages cover Word layouts (the Business Central add-in and the XML Mapping pane), Excel layouts with PivotTables and PivotCharts, and RDLC layouts built with Report Builder or Visual Studio. A fonts reference lists the preinstalled fonts in the online service. The subtopic on obsolete features documents the older custom layout approach.

## Key points

- Layout types are Word, Excel, RDLC and external, plus composite layouts that combine reusable themes and header/footer layouts.
- Default layouts can be set per company, or a layout can be chosen temporarily from the report request page.
- Document layouts can be assigned to individual customers and vendors, along with contact email addresses for distribution.
- Themes and header/footer layouts resolve independently, with priority from layout-specific up to global defaults.
- The Business Central add-in for Word adds fields, repeating data tables and conditional hiding without manual XML editing; the XML Mapping pane supports manual mapping.
- Excel layouts support formulas, PivotTables, PivotCharts and multiple worksheets.
- RDLC layouts are designed with SQL Server Report Builder or the Visual Studio RDLC Report Designer extension.
- A fonts reference lists preinstalled online fonts, including barcode, MICR, security and OCR fonts.

## Subtopics

- [Use obsolete features](change-the-look-of-externally-facing-doc/use-obsolete-features.md) (4 pages)

## More Learn pages

- [Assign document layouts to customers or vendors](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-define-customer-vendor-document-layouts): Use document layouts to control the appearance and format of documents such as invoices and orders that you send to customers and vendors.
- [Available fonts](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-fonts): Learn about the preinstalled fonts that you can use for your externally facing reports.
- [Design Word Layouts with the Business Central Add-in](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-design-word-layouts-business-central-add-in): Learn how to use the Business Central Word add-in to add report fields, create repeating tables, add layout comments, and hide empty content.
- [Get started creating report layouts](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-get-started-layouts): Learn how to create and customize report layouts in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
- [Map Data Fields in Word Layouts](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-how-add-fields-word-report-layout): Learn how to use the XML Mapping Pane in Word to manually map Business Central report data, labels, images, and repeating rows to content controls.
- [Report and document layouts overview](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-manage-report-layouts): Use report layouts to customize documents, for example, to personalize the font, logo, or page settings of PDF files you send to customers.
- [Set the Layout Used by a Report in Business Central](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-set-report-layout): Learn how to select the default report layout for each company, temporarily use another layout, and distinguish layout selection from reusable branding.
- [Set Up Report Themes and Header/Footer Layouts](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-set-up-report-themes-header-footer-layouts): Learn how to manage reusable report themes and header/footer layouts, approve them, and assign defaults across reports and companies in Business Central.
- [Working with Excel layouts](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-excel-report-layouts): Learn how to create and modify report layouts that are built using Excel.
- [Working with RDLC Layouts](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/ui-rdlc-report-layouts): Get an introduction to RDLC report layouts.

## Business Central pages and reports

The pages, reports and queries this hub's Learn pages name (ms.search.form, API reference), joined to the code by exact object id (data/index/docs-objects.json); a page shows the table it runs on.

- [Page 21 "Customer Card"](../../../../objects/page/21.md) · on [Table 18 "Customer"](../../../../objects/table/18.md)
- [Page 9650 "Custom Report Layouts"](../../../../objects/page/9650.md) · on [Table 9650 "Custom Report Layout"](../../../../objects/table/9650.md)
- [Page 9652 "Report Layout Selection"](../../../../objects/page/9652.md) · on [Table 9651 "Report Layout Selection"](../../../../objects/table/9651.md)
- [Page 9660 "Report Layouts"](../../../../objects/page/9660.md)
- [Page 9663 "Tenant Report Layout Cfg"](../../../../objects/page/9663.md) · captioned "Report defaults for theme and header-footer"
- [Page 9666 "Report Theme and Header/Footer"](../../../../objects/page/9666.md) · captioned "Manage themes and header-footer layouts"
- [Page 9670 "Layout Theme and Header/Footer"](../../../../objects/page/9670.md) · captioned "Theme and header-footer per layout"

Source: Microsoft Learn (CC BY 4.0). Descriptions are Learn's own.