Some of the properties that appear in the Property Grid for the report set the default value for that property for objects rather than controlling the report itself. These are (see the Common Properties topic for information on them):

• Background Color

• Border Color

• Border Dash Style

• Border Width

• Borders

• Font

• Foreground Color

• Padding

• Text Alignment

• Visible

Other properties are automatically set by Report Writer and shouldn't be touched:

• Data Adapter

• Data Member

• Data Source

• Data Source's Schema

• ExpandedValues

• HyperlinksAreActive:

• ReportObject

• XML Data Path

The following are properties you can change if desired:

• Bands: a collection of the bands in the report. Clicking the "..." button displays a dialog in which you can edit the properties of the bands, which you can also do by selecting the band and using the Property Grid.

• Calculated Fields: a collection of the calculated fields in the report. Clicking the "..." button displays the CalculatedFields Collection Editor dialog.

• Designer Options: this has several sub-properties:

  • Show Designer's Hints: if this is No, the settings of the next two items are treated as if they're set to No.

  • Show Export Warnings: if this is Yes, warnings about overlapping controls are displayed since that may cause exporting to some file formats to not work correctly.

  • Show Printing Warnings: if this is Yes, warnings about controls located outside the right page margins are displayed since that causes additional pages to print.

• Display Name: the descriptive name of the report.

• Draw the Grid: set this to Yes to display a grid in the Layout Area.

• Export Options: specifies options used when exporting the report. The CSV Export Options control output to comma-separated values (CSV) files. The sub-properties are:

  • Encoding: the type of data encoding to use.

  • Quote Strings with Separators: set this to Yes if a string containing the character defined in the Separator property should have quotes around it.

  • Separator: the character used to separate fields; a comma by default.

  • Text Export Mode: if this is set to Value, only the content of the field is output. If it's set to Text, the formatting is included.

  The Email Options control emailing. The sub-properties are:

  • Body: the body of the email.

  • Recipient Address: the email address of the recipient.

  • Recipient Address Prefix: the prefix for the recipient email address. The default is "SMTP:."

  • Recipient Name: the name of the recipient.

  • Subject: the subject of the email.

  The HTML Export Options control output to HTML files. The sub-properties are:

  • Character Set: the character set to use in the file.

  • Enable Images in HTML: set this to Yes to embed images in the HTML content.

  • Export Mode: specifies how the report is exported to HTML. Single File means a single file is created as one long report, Single File (Page-by-Page) means a single file is created but is paginated, and Different Files means one file is created per page.

  • Page Border Color: the border color of the page.

  • Page Border Width: the border width of the page.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to output.

  • Remove Secondary Symbols: set this to Yes to remove secondary symbols, such as spaces and carriage returns, from the file to reduce its size.

  • Title: the title of the HTML document.

  The Image Export Options control output to image files. The sub-properties are:

  • Export Mode: specifies how the report is exported. Single File means a single file is created as one long report, Single File (Page-by-Page) means a single file is created but is paginated, and Different Files means one file is created per page.

  • Format: the type of image to create: BMP, EMF, WMF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF.

  • Page Border's Color: the border color of the page.

  • Page Border's Width: the border width of the page.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to output.

  • Resolution: the resolution in DPI of the resulting image.

  The MHT Export Options control output to MHT (short for MIME HTML) files. MHT includes external resources, such as images, in the HTML document. The sub-properties are:

  • Character Set: the character set to use in the file.

  • Enable Images in HTML: set this to Yes to embed images in the HTML content.

  • Export Mode: specifies how the report is exported to HTML. Single File means a single file is created as one long report, Single File (Page-by-Page) means a single file is created but is paginated, and Different Files means one file is created per page.

  • Page Border Color: the border color of the page.

  • Page Border Width: the border width of the page.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to output.

  • Remove Secondary Symbols: set this to Yes to remove secondary symbols, such as spaces and carriage returns, from the file to reduce its size.

  • Title: the title of the HTML document.

  Since the native format export isn't very useful, you can ignore the Native Format Options.

  The PDF Export Options control output to PDF files. The sub-properties are:

  • Compressed: set this to Yes to compress the file.

  • Convert Images to Jpeg: set this to Yes to convert images to JPEG when creating the file.

  • Application: the name of the application creating the document.

  • Author: the name of the author.

  • Keywords: keywords for the file.

  • Subject: the subject for the file.

  • Title: the title of the file.

  • Image Quality: the quality of images in the file.

  • Never Embed Fonts: a semi-colon delimited list of fonts which should not be embedded in the file. Embedded fonts make the file much larger but make them readable on systems that don't have those fonts installed.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to output.

  • Security Options: click the "..." button to display the Password Security dialog.

    

    The options in this dialog are:

    • Require a password to open the document: turn this on to add a password to the document.

    • Document open password: the password to use.

    • Restrict editing and printing of the document: turn this on to control editing and printing of the document.

    • Change Permissions Password: the password to change the restrictions.

    • Printing allowed: controls whether and what type of printing is allowed.

    • Changes allowed: controls whether and what type of changes are allowed.

    • Enable copying of text, images, and other content: turn this on to allow copying content.

    • Enable text access for screen reader devices for the visually impaired: turn this on to allow the document to be read by a screen reader device.

    • Show Print Dialog: turn this on to display the Print Dialog when the PDF file is opened.

  The Print Preview Options control what happens in the Print Preview tab. The sub-properties are:

  • Action After Export: determines whether the file is simply exported (None), the file is automatically opened (Open), or the user is prompted (Ask a User).

  • Default directory: the default directory for the output.

  • Default Export Format: the default export type to use.

  • Default File Name: the default file name for the output.

  • Default Send Format: the default export type to use for email.

  • Save Mode: determines whether the user is prompted to save the file (Use a Save File Dialog) or not (Use a Default Path)

  • Show Options Dialog: set this to Yes to display an options dialog when the report is exported.

  The RTF Export Options control output to RTF files. The sub-properties are:

  • Export Mode: specifies how the report is exported to HTML. Single File means a single file is created as one long report and Single File (Page-by-Page) means a single file is created but is paginated.

  • Export Watermark: set this to Yes to export the report's watermark; see the Watermark property for details.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to output.

  The Text Export Options control output to a text file. The sub-properties are:

  • Encoding: the type of data encoding to use.

  • Quote Strings with Separators: set this to Yes if a string containing the character defined in the Separator property should have quotes around it.

  • Separator: the character used to separate fields; a tab by default.

  • Text Export Mode: if this is set to Value, only the content of the field is output. If it's set to Text, the formatting is included.

  The XLS Export Options control output to Microsoft Excel 97-2003 XLS files. The sub-properties are:

  • Export Hyperlinks: set this to Yes to include hyperlinks in the file.

  • Export Mode: specifies how the report is exported. Single File means a single file is created as one long report and Different Pages means a separate file is created for each page.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to output.

  • Raw Data Mode: set this to Yes to only export data or No to include the formatting.

  • Sheet Name: the name to use for the worksheet.

  • Show Grid Lines: set this to Yes to display Excel's grid lines.

  • Suppress 256 Columns Warning: set this to Yes to suppress the warning that appears if the spreadsheet has more than 256 columns.

  • Suppress 65536 Rows Warning: set this to Yes to suppress the warning that appears if the spreadsheet has more than 65,536 rows.

  • Text Export Mode: if this is set to Value, only the content of the field is output. If it's set to Text, the formatting is included.

  The XLSX Export Options control output to Microsoft Excel 2007 or later XLSX files. The sub-properties are:

  • Export Hyperlinks: set this to Yes to include hyperlinks in the file.

  • Export Mode: specifies how the report is exported to HTML. Single File means a single file is created as one long report, Single File (Page-by-Page) means a single file is created but is paginated, and Different Files means one file is created per page.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to output.

  • Raw Data Mode: set this to Yes to only export data or No to include the formatting.

  • Sheet Name: the name to use for the worksheet.

  • Show Grid Lines: set this to Yes to display Excel's grid lines.

  • Text Export Mode: if this is set to Value, only the content of the field is output. If it's set to Text, the formatting is included.

• Filter String: this specifies an expression that filters the data in the report. You shouldn't need to use this; instead, create a filter for the report in step 4 of the report wizards.

• Formatting Rule Sheet: click the "..." button to display the Formatting Rule Sheet Editor.

• Formatting Rules: click the "..." button to display the Formatting Rules Editor.

• Landscape: set this to Yes for landscape or No for portrait.

• Margins: the bottom, left, right, and top page margins in the units specified in Measure Units.

• Measure Units: by default, the measurement units of a report are hundredths of an inch. This setting affects the values for properties that specify size and location, such as Padding and Margins. The choices for this property are Hundredths of an Inch, Tenths of a Millimeter, or Pixels.

• Page Color: the background color for pages in the report. You won't see the color in the Layout Area but you will when you preview the report.

• Page Height: the height of the page in the units specified in Measure Units. This is disabled unless Paper Kind is set to Custom.

• Page Width: the width of the page in the units specified in Measure Units. This is disabled unless Paper Kind is set to Custom.

• Paper Kind: the type of paper for the report.

• Paper Name: the name of the type of paper when Paper Kind is set to Custom.

• Parameters: click the "..." button to display the Parameter Collection Editor.

• Printer Name: the name of the printer to print to. Blank means use the default printer and is the best choice, since the selected printer may not exist in the future or on someone else's system.

• Report Print Options: the sub-properties are:

  • Blank Detail Count: use this to specify the number of rows to move down as an indent before printing the detail band's data for the first time when creating multi-column reports.

  • Detail Count: enter a value to limit the number of records printed. 0 means there is no limit.

  • Detail Count at Design Time: enter a value to limit the number of records shown when the report is previewed in the Advanced Report Designer. This is useful if there are a lot of records, resulting in a lot of pages, and you want to tweak the report, preview it, tweak, preview, and so on without taking the time to render every page when previewing. 0 means there is no limit.

  • Detail Count when Data Source is Empty: enter a value to specify how many times to print the detail band when there are no records in the result set for the report.

  • Print when Data Source is Empty: set this to Yes to allow the report to print when there are no records in the result set for the report or false to prevent the printing.

• Request Parameters: set this to Yes to request the values of parameters from the user before running the report.

• Script Language: the language to use for scripts.

• Script References: specifies references to external assemblies whose classes can be used in scripts. Use a full path for the assembly or only the file name if the assembly is in the GAC.

• Scripts: the names of the scripts to execute for each report event.

• Show Margin Lines in Preview: set this to Yes to display page margin lines in the Print Preview tab.

• Show Print Margins Warning: set this to Yes to display a warning when the page margins are set outside the printable area.

• Show Print Status Dialog: set this to Yes to display a status dialog when the report is printed.

• Snap Grid Size: by default, there are grid lines every 1/8 of an inch. To change the grid scale, edit the value of this property. By default, the measurement units of a report are hundredths of an inch, so a value of 12.5 means grid lines appear every 12.5/100 or 1/8 of an inch.

• Snap to Grid: set this to Yes to snap controls to the grid when they are moved or resized.

• Snapping Mode: this specifies how objects are snapped to each other when they are moved or resized. The choices are Snap Lines or Snap to Grid.

• Style Sheet: click the "..." button to display the Styles Editor.

• Style Sheet's Path: the path for the style sheet. Blank means the styles are contained within the report.

• Use Settings of the Default Printer: the sub-properties are:

• Use Landscape: set this to Yes to use the default printer's landscape setting rather than the Landscape property to determine the orientation.

• Use Margins: set this to Yes to use the default printer's margins rather than the Margins property.

• Use Paper Kind: set this to Yes to use the default printer's paper kind rather than the Paper Kind property.

• Vertical Content Splitting: this determines whether objects outside the right page margin are split across pages (Exact) or moved in their entirety to the next page (Smart).

• Watermark: specifies the settings of the watermark for the report. See the Ribbon topic for more information on the watermark. The sub-properties are:

  • Font: the font of the watermark text.

  • Foreground Color: the foreground color of the watermark text.

  • Image: the path for the image to use as a watermark.

  • Image Alignment: the alignment for the image.

  • Image Tiling: set this to Yes to tile the image.

  • Image Transparency: the transparency of the image. The range is 0 to 255, with 0 being completely opaque and 255 completely transparent.

  • Image View Mode: specifies whether the image is clipped, stretched, or zoomed.

  • Page Range: the range of pages to display the watermark on.

  • Show Behind: set this to Yes to display the watermark behind the report contents or No to display it in front.

  • Text: the watermark text.

  • Text Direction: the direction of the watermark text.

  • Text Transparency: the transparency of the text. The range is 0 to 255, with 0 being completely opaque and 255 completely transparent.