A method of reusing fragments and parts of fragments in creating and editing report documents, a report document including fragments for receiving data from one or more data sources based on a query for selecting relevant data from the one or more data sources and for specifying a manner of presenting the relevant data using visual report elements, the method comprising the steps of: a) retrieving a report document (14A - 14D) from a first database; b) identifying a fragment (20A - 20D) within said report document based on statements of a report document format language identified in the retrieved report document, the statements defining data sources or defining data specifications or defining data presentation formats or defining a combination of a data source, a data specification, and a data presentation format; c) generating metadata associated with said fragment, the metadata at least comprising fragment dependency data specifying a data source on which the fragment depends; d) storing a record associated with said fragment and said metadata in a second database, the record comprising a plurality of functional fragment elements, the functional fragment elements comprising a data source identifier, the data source identifier identifying a database, a data specification, the data specification including a query in a query language used by the database for retrieving relevant data from the database, and a presentation format, the presentation format specifying, based on a set of visual elements, how the data retrieved from the database is to be displayed and formatted; e) identifying said fragment in the second database as a result of a search query to the metadata; and f) inserting said fragment in a second report document. a) retrieving a report document (14A - 14D) from a first database; b) identifying a fragment (20A - 20D) within said report document based on statements of a report document format language identified in the retrieved report document, the statements defining data sources or defining data specifications or defining data presentation formats or defining a combination of a data source, a data specification, and a data presentation format; c) generating metadata associated with said fragment, the metadata at least comprising fragment dependency data specifying a data source on which the fragment depends; d) storing a record associated with said fragment and said metadata in a second database, the record comprising a plurality of functional fragment elements, the functional fragment elements comprising a data source identifier, the data source identifier identifying a database, a data specification, the data specification including a query in a query language used by the database for retrieving relevant data from the database, and a presentation format, the presentation format specifying, based on a set of visual elements, how the data retrieved from the database is to be displayed and formatted; a data source identifier, the data source identifier identifying a database, a data specification, the data specification including a query in a query language used by the database for retrieving relevant data from the database, and a presentation format, the presentation format specifying, based on a set of visual elements, how the data retrieved from the database is to be displayed and formatted; e) identifying said fragment in the second database as a result of a search query to the metadata; and f) inserting said fragment in a second report document.