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Adding Other Report Items

In addition to data regions, reports use other report items to add visual interest, highlight key information, or provide related information. To add a report item to a report, open the Toolbox and drag the item to the design surface. You can change the properties of a report item by using the Properties pane. For example, you can add a border or padding, change the initial visibility or direction, or specify an exact size and location for the item.

The following report items are available in Reporting Services:

  • Textbox   Text boxes can be placed anywhere on a report and can contain labels, fields, or calculated data. You use expressions to define the value to display in a text box when you view a report.

    Note

    If you drag a report dataset field value directly to the report design surface, or to a text box on the report design surface, you only see the first value in the result set when you view the report. To see all the values for a field, you must drag the field to a Tablix data region cell.

  • Image   Images display binary image data in a report. You provide the source for the image. The source can be a URL reference to an image stored on a Web server, a reference to embedded image data, or a reference to binary image data in a database. Reporting Services supports .bmp, .jpeg, .gif, and .png files.

  • Line   Lines display horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. A line is defined with a start and end point and can have various styles (for example, weight and color) assigned to it. A line has no data associated with it.

  • Rectangle   Rectangles can be used in two ways: as a graphical element, or as a container for other report items. As a graphical element, a rectangle has the same properties as a line. As a container, you drag report items from the toolbox or from the design surface into the rectangle. A rectangle acts as a parent container for all report items inside it. Placing report items in a parent container helps control how they appear on each report page. For more information, see Understanding Rendering Behaviors.

  • Subreport   A subreport displays report that has been saved to a report server in a parent report. The subreport can refer to a fully formatted independent report, or one that is designed to be embedded within the main report. When you define a subreport, you can also define parameters to filter data in the subreport.

    When deciding whether to use a subreport, you may want to consider using a data region instead, particularly if the subreport is not used by multiple reports. Because the report server processes each instance of a subreport as a separate report, performance can be impacted. Data regions provide much of the same functionality and flexibility as subreports, but with better performance. For more information, see Nesting Data Regions.

  • **Page header and page footer   **Page headers and footers display information on the top or bottom of every page, respectively. You can set properties for the first and last page of a report to show or hide the header and footer.

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