Learning about the Report Designer

The Report Designer allows you to create new reports, bind them to data, and even pass them to another workstation and load them into another instance of the Report Designer. In addition to report editing capabilities, it allows you to display its Print Preview and send its output to a printer or export it to a file on disk.

The features of the Reports Designer are constantly changing. Some features described in the Report Designer help might differ from what you see in your application.

Click the area of the window you want to learn more about.

Report DesignerMenu barToolbarsTool BoxReport ExplorerProperty GridDesign PanelGroup and Sort

Menu bar

The menu bar displays below the title bar. Click the following menus to learn about the available commands.

Menu Command Description
File Save Saves the changes to the Output Manager database.
  Exit Closes the Report Designer.
Edit Undo Undo the last action that you did.
  Redo Repeats the last action that you did.
  Cut Removes the selection and places it on the Clipboard.
  Copy Copies the selection to the Clipboard.
  Paste Inserts the contents of the Clipboard at the insertion point.
  Delete Deletes the selection.
  Select All Selects all items.
View Designer Changes the page layout to one of the following:
  • Preview — Displays the report in Print Preview mode. You will be prompted to enter report parameters.
  • HTML View — Displays the report in HTML. You will be prompted to enter report parameters.
  Toolbars Shows or hides the toolbars. Also allows for customizing the toolbar and menu bar.
  Windows Shows or hides portions of the window.
Format Foreground Color Specifies the text color for the control.
  Background Color Specifies the background color for the control.
  Font Specifies the font settings for the control.
  Justify  
  Align Allows you to change the alignment of the control's text.
  Make Same Size Allows you to choose the control size.
  Horizontal Spacing Allows you to choose the horizontal spacing.
  Vertical Spacing  
  Center in Form Centers the control in the form horizontally or vertically.
  Order Brings the selected controls to the front or moves the selected controls to the back.

Toolbars

The Report Designer contains the following toolbars.

If one of the toolbars are hidden, you can enable it by selecting View > Toolbars on the menu bar.

Main Toolbar

The Main toolbar contains buttons which provide the capability to save report layouts, cut, copy and paste report elements, and undo-redo actions in the Report Designer.

Main Toolbar

Formatting Toolbar

The Formatting toolbar allows you to easily customize an element's font, color and alignment settings.

Formatting Toolbar

Layout Toolbar

The Layout toolbar allows you to easily align report elements to one another, change their size to match one another and customize spacing and z-order.

Layout Toolbar

Zoom Toolbar

The Zoom toolbar allows you to zoom a report in and out, providing easier control over report's layout.

Zoom Toolbar

Context Menu

The Context Menu can be invoked by right-clicking a report or its elements. This menu provides quick access to frequently used commands such as zooming, clipboard operations, inserting bands and invoking the Property grid. The available action set varies, depending on the element where you invoked the context menu.

Context Menu

Tool Box

The Tool Box lists all available controls and allows you to add them to your report.

If the Tool Box panel is hidden, you can show it by selecting View > Windows > Tool Box on the menu bar.
Tool Box

To add a control from the Tool Box, do one of the following:

  • Double-click a tool in the Tool Box for the appropriate control, which will be created at the Detail band's top left corner.
  • Drag and drop a tool from the Tool Box onto the required location within a report.
  • Select a tool in the Tool Box, and then click the required location within a report.
  • Select a tool in the Tool Box, and then indicate the bounding rectangle by holding the left mouse button.

Select the Pointer tool when you need to perform selection, repositioning, or resizing. The Pointer tool is automatically selected after you drop a control onto a report.

Design Panel

The Design Panel provides the following three tabs (switched at the bottom).

Designer tab

This tab allows you to customize a report, manage its report bands and controls, and define their properties.

Designer Tab

Smart Tags

From the Designer tab, you can use smart tags. Most report elements have smart tags that provide easy access to the most frequently used settings. Clicking a smart tag invokes a pop-up window with action links and editors, allowing you to customize the element.

Report smart tag

A report's smart tag icon is located at the top left corner of the Design Panel. Note that you need to click that corner twice. The first click selects the report object, allowing you to change its settings in the Property Grid. The second click invokes the smart tag's pop-up window.

You should never change Data source, Data Member, or Data adapter settings in the Reports Designer. Data is automatically pulled from the Output Manager database, and changing these could cause undesirable results.
Report Tasks
Band smart tag

A band's smart tag icon is located on the band strip right next to its caption. For instance, the smart tag for the Group Head band is shown in the following image.

Band Task
Control smart tag

A control's smart tag icon is located at the top right corner of the control. For instance, the smart tag for the Label control is shown in the following image.

Label Tasks

Preview tab

This tab shows a print preview, and enables you to print out your report or export it to a file on disk.

Preview Tab

HTML View tab

This tab shows the report output in HTML format.

HTML View Tab

Group and Sort

If the Group and Sort panel is hidden, you can show it by selecting View > Windows > Group and Sort on the menu bar.
Group and Sort

Report Explorer

The Report Explorer shows the report structure in a tree form. This provides easy access to report elements. Once an element has been selected in the Report Explorer, its settings can be changed using the Property Grid window.

If the Report Explorer is hidden, you can make it visible it by clicking View > Windows > Report Explorer on the menu bar.

The Report Explorer contains two tabs, the Report Explorer tab and the Field List tab.

Report Explorer tab

The Report Explorer tab shows the report structure in a tree form. This provides easy access to report elements. Once an element has been selected on the Report Explorer tab, it's settings can be changed using the Property Grid window.

Report Explorer

Field List tab

The Field List tab serves the following purposes:

  • Displays the list of all available data fields (attributes you can show in your report) and allows you to create report elements that will show information from these fields.
  • Allows you to create calculated fields by building expressions based on the values of data fields, report parameter values, and so forth.
  • Shows existing report parameters, and allows you to add parameters to your report.
Field List

Property Grid

The Property Grid allows you to change the settings of the currently selected report element. See the Report settings topic for a description of each property.

If the Property Grid is hidden, you can enable it by clicking View > Windows > Property Grid on the menu bar.
Property Grid

To select an element and show its properties within the Property Grid, do one of the following:

  • Click the required element on the Report Designer surface.
  • Select an element using the Report Explorer window.
  • Select an element from the Property Grid combo box.