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Lesson 7: Specifying the Default Format of a Field

To help Report Builder users create reports, you can format fields within the report model. When users add the field to the report, the contents of the field are already formatted. Numbers use the General format unless otherwise specified. In this lesson, you will format a field so that the contents of the field are displayed as monetary values.

Note

Setting the default format in the model affects only the field formatting when creating reports in Report Builder 1.0.

To specify the default format of a field

  1. Verify that the Sum Total Due field is selected.

  2. In the Properties window, locate the Format property and then type c2.

    C2 is a valid Microsoft .NET Framework format string. When this format string is specified, each value is displayed as a currency value with two decimal points.

  3. On the File menu, click Save All.

    You have successfully formatted a field so that the contents are displayed as currency with two decimal places.

    Note

    You can choose to customize the formatting by using a valid .NET Framework format string. For more information about valid .NET Framework format strings, see Standard Numeric Format Strings at www.msdn.microsoft.com.

Next Steps

In the next lesson, you will specify which fields should be used as default detail attributes. Afterwards, you will redeploy the model and view the changes that you have made to the report model in Report Builder. See Lesson 8: Specifying Default Detail Attributes.