How to create a report with multiple sections?

Question

Using Report Builder, I need to create a report that has multiple sections and each section uses a different dataset. Each section has a header that displays the company logo, the section number and the section name. The data in each section can be displayed as free-form or as a table and can be several pages long. I am new to Report Builder and while I can manage the data, displaying it in multiple sections is eluding me. Also, this report has a cover page where the header displays only the company logo. The body displays the customer information and also contains a table of contents outlining the sections. It would be nice to create the table of contents based on the report sections automatically, but hard coding that will not be a problem if necessary.

I am using Report Builder v15.0.19210.0 and SSMS v18.9.1

Answer 1

I am attaching a sample of how I want the report to look like. The report is divided into six sections and a cover page. Each of those sections will have its own dataset and the information may display as one page or several pages. In the sample, I am "cheating" in the header. Since there is no real data in each of the sections, I was able to use a global parameter to pull in the section number. Once I add real data, that expression will no longer work correctly. I used rectangles to create each of these sections, but I do not know if I should have used Lists instead. A report like this will take our quality engineer hours, if not days, to put together. I would like to reduce that time to minutes. We are a small company and do not have anyone with experience creating reports and I am learning on the fly. We have the data, but we usually just export it to an Excel spreadsheet, which the engineer will still need to manipulate to get it the way the customer wants to receive it. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.116326-samplereport.pdf

@Joyzhao-MSFT

Answer 2

Hi @David Lopez ,
I don't understand what you mean. It is worth mentioning that each data area can only correspond to one dataset, and a report can have many data areas. For example, if you have a matrix, the matrix can only correspond to one dataset. If you want to add information from other datasets to the matrix, you may use look up function, etc.
If I misunderstand what you mean, please feel free to correct me.
Best Regards,
Joy

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