Pagination is the division of a document into pages of a specified size. It applies to the following output formats supported by BIRT: DOC, PDF, and PPT. In PPT, each report page is a PowerPoint slide. By default, reports in these formats display as much data as can fit on each page, up to 40 detail rows. This specification can result in key sections appearing in the middle or at the bottom of a page. For most paginated reports, a common approach is to start certain sections at the top of a new page or avoid breaking a section across two pages.

By contrast, an XLS report appears on a single Excel worksheet; page breaks that you specify in the report design have no effect. Similarly, an HTML report always displays on a single scrollable page when you preview a report in the layout editor or as HTML. The page breaks that you specify take effect when an HTML report is viewed in the report viewer.