The documents in this section are dedicated to the elements of the Report Designer User Interface.

Design Panel

The Design Panel is the Report Designer's main area, where a report is being constructed and previewed.

Context Menu

The Context Menu can be invoked by the right-clicking a report or its elements (bands and controls).

This menu provides quick access to frequently used commands (e.g. zooming, clipboard operations, inserting bands, etc.) The available action set varies, depending on the element where you invoked the Context Menu.

Smart Tag

Most report elements have Smart Tags that provide easy access to the most frequently used settings. Clicking an element's Smart Tag invokes an actions list with action links and editors, allowing you to customise this element.

Ribbon

The Ribbon contains buttons that collate the functionality offered in Report Designer. The Ribbon is divided into several tabs and groups as follows:

Home Tab

• The Report Group allows you to save the report and its template or open a saved template.
• The Data Group allows you to Add a Data Source, Calculated Field or Parameter.
• The Edit, Font, Alignment, Borders and Styles Groups allow you to easily customise an element's font, colour, alignment, border and overall style settings.

Layout Tab

• The Snapping, Alignment, Layout and Arrange Groups allow you to easily align report elements to one another, change their size to match one another and customise spacing and z-order.

Page Tab

• The Page Setup Group allows you to change the page size, orientation and margins.
• The Appearance Group allows you to change your page colours or watermarks.

View Tab

• The Show Group allows you to display a watermark or grid lines.
• The Zoom Group allows you to zoom a report in and out, providing easier control over report's layout.
• The View Group allows you to show/hide the various elements on display in the Report Designer.

Standard Controls

The Standard Controls Panel lists all available controls and allows you to add them to your report.

See Report Designer Controls for more detailed information.

Group and Sort Panel

The Group and Sort Panel allows you to quickly apply grouping and sorting to your report data. It is located at the bottom of the Designer Tab in the Design Panel.

Create a new grouping or sorting criterion

• Click Add a Group or Add a Sort.

Manage Group Header or Footer band

• Use the Show Header and Show Footer check boxes. An ascending or descending grouping (sorting) mode is specified via the Sort Order drop-down list.

                You can change the order in which multiple grouping and sorting criteria are to be performed, via the Move Up and Move Down buttons.

Remove a grouping or sorting criterion

1. Select a sorting criterion.
2. Click Delete.

Show a hidden Group and Sort Panel

• Select Group and Sort in the View Group of the ribbon.

Scripts Errors

The Scripts Errors Panel displays the result of scripts validation after it is forced in the Scripts tab on the ribbon. For more information, refer to Handle Events via Scripts.

Scripts Errors Panel is located at the bottom of the Design Panel next to the Group and Sort Panel.

1. Errors in the scripts: If errors are located, they are listed in Scripts Errors panel. To get to the corresponding line of code, click an item in the panel's list.
2. Valid scripts: If all scripts are valid, then the panel reports that the scripts are valid.

Show a hidden Scripts Errors Panel

• Click Scripts Errors in the View Group of the ribbon.

Report Explorer

The Report Explorer:

• Shows a report's structure in tree form, providing easy access to report elements.
• Displays non-visual report components (e.g., report data sources) inside its Components node.

Once an element has been selected in the Report Explorer, its settings can be changed using the Property Grid.

The Report Explorer tab is co-located by default with the Field List tab in the Designer tab of the Design Panel.

Show a hidden Report Explorer

• Click Report Explorer in the View Group of the ribbon.

Field List

The Field List window 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, etc.
• Shows existing report parameters, and allows you to add parameters to your report.

Click on Field List tab next to Report Explorer on the Report Designer tab of the Design Panel.

Show a hidden Field List

• Click Field List in the View Group of the ribbon.

Property Grid

The Property Grid allows you to change the settings of the currently selected report element.

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's combo box.

The Property Grid is co-located by default with the Report Gallery below Report Explorer/Field List panels.

Reset a property value

1. Right-click the property.
2. Click Reset.

Show a hidden Property Grid List

• Click Property Grid in the View Group of the ribbon.

Report Gallery

The Report Gallery allows you to:

• Store common report controls, styles, data sources and full report layouts, and re-use them in different reports.
• Create frequently used templates and apply them afterward to other reports.

The Report Gallery tab is located on the right next to the Property Grid tab in the Report Designer tab of the Design Panel.

Show a hidden Report Gallery

• Click Report Gallery in the View Group of the ribbon.

See also:

• Designing with Report Gallery

Designer Tab

The Report Designer Tab allows you to customise a report, manage its bands and controls and define their properties.

Preview Tab

The Preview Tab is intended to check the print output of a report and customise its additional options. You can also export your report directly from here.

Scripts Tab

The Scripts Tab on the Report ribbon allows you to manage your report's scripts. It provides centralised access to all the scripts being written for a report or any of its elements (bands and controls).

The built-in scripts validation capability is provided in this tab. After clicking Validate, the result is displayed in the Scripts Errors Panel.

For more information, refer to Handle Events via Scripts.