BIRT includes two additional views that are not open by default. These views can be used for reference—the Report Examples View and the Chart Examples View. These two views include example reports that can be used as a starting point for many different types of reports and chart types, or as a reference if we want to use a particular feature in our own reports.

These views are available from the Window menu, under Show View | Other. They are located under the Report and Chart Design section.

Once opened, the views will appear in the same area as the Properties Editor. When the desired report is located, we can right-click on it and choose Open. When we do, it prompts us to create a new reporting project and store the example report there.

One can use this feature to familiarize himself/herself with the different report types and reporting features that BIRT offers, which we will be covering in this book.