Exporting to Microsoft Word
The Word rendering extension renders a report as a Word document that is compatible with Microsoft Microsoft Word 2000 or later. After the report is exported to a Word document, you can change the contents of your report and design document-style reports such as mailing labels, purchase orders, or form letters. The file name extension of files generated by this renderer is .doc.
Report Items in Word
Reports exported to Word appear as a nested table that represents the report body. A tablix data region is rendered as a nested table that reflects the structure of the data region in the report. Text boxes and rectangles are each rendered as a cell within the table. The text box value is displayed inside the cell.
Images, charts, and gauges are each rendered as a static image within a table cell. Hyperlinks and drillthrough links on these report items are rendered. Maps and areas that can be clicked within a chart are not supported.
Newsletter-style column reports are not rendered in Word. Report body and page background images and colors are not rendered.
Pagination
After the report is opened in Word, Word repaginates the entire report again based on the page size. Repagination may cause page breaks to be inserted in locations where you did not intend to add them and, in some instances, may cause the exported report to have two successive page breaks in a row or add blank pages. You can try to change Word's pagination by adjusting the page margins.
This renderer supports only logical page breaks.
Page Sizing
When the report is rendered, the Word page height and width are set by the following report definition language (RDL) properties: paper size height and width, left and right page margins, and the top and bottom page margins.
Page Width
Word supports page widths that are up to 22 inches wide. If the report is wider than 22 inches, the renderer will still render the report; however, Word will not display the report contents while in print layout view or reading layout view. To view the data, switch to normal view or Web layout view. In these views, Word reduces the amount of whitespace, thereby displaying more of your report contents.
When rendered, the report grows as wide as required, up to 22 inches, to display the contents. The minimum width of the report is based on the RDL Width property in the Properties pane.
Document Properties
The Word renderer writes the following metadata to the DOC file.
Report Element properties |
Description |
|---|---|
Report Title (report title) |
Title |
Report.Author |
Author |
Report.Description |
Comments |
Report Headers and Footers
Report headers and footers are rendered as header and footer regions in Word. If a report page number or an expression that indicates the total number of report pages appears in the report header or footer, they are translated to a Word field so that the accurate page number is displayed in the rendered report. If the header or footer height is set in the report, Word cannot support this setting. The PrintOnFirstPage and PrintOnLastPage RDL properties are not supported.
Interactivity
Some interactive elements are supported in Word. The following is a description of specific behaviors.
Show and Hide
The Word renderer renders report items based on their state when rendered. If a report item's state is hidden, the report item is not rendered in the Word document. If a report item's state is shown, the report item is rendered in the Word document. Toggle functionality is not supported in Word.
Document Map
If any document map labels exist in the report, they are rendered as Word Table of Contents (TOC) labels on the respective report items and groups. The document map label is used as the label text for the TOC labels. The target link is positioned near the item on which the label is set. While a TOC is not created for you in the Word document, you can build your own TOC by using the document map labels that are rendered in the report.
Hyperlink and Drillthrough Links
Hyperlinks and drillthrough links on text box and image report items are rendered as hyperlinks in the Word document. When you click the hyperlink, the default Web browser opens and navigates to the URL. When you click the drillthrough hyperlink, the originating report server is accessed.
Interactive Sorting
The report contents are rendered based on how they are currently sorted within the report data region. Word does not support interactive sorting. After the report is rendered, you can apply table sorting within Word.
Bookmarks
Bookmarks in the report are rendered as Word bookmarks. Bookmark links are rendered as hyperlinks that connect to the bookmark labels within the document. Bookmark labels must be less than 40 characters long. The only special character that can be used in a bookmark label is an underscore (_). Unsupported special characters are stripped from the bookmark label name and, if the name is longer than 40 characters, the name is truncated. If there are duplicate bookmark names in the report, the bookmarks are not rendered in Word.
Word Style Rendering
The following is a brief description of how styles are rendered in Word.
Color Palette
Colors rendered in the report are rendered in the Word document.
Border
Borders for report items, other than the page border, are rendered as Word table cell borders. The report page border is rendered as a Word page border.
Word Limitations
The following limitations are applied by Microsoft Word:
Word tables support a maximum of 63 columns. If your report has more than 63 columns and you try to render it, Word splits the table. The additional columns are placed adjacent to the 63 columns displayed in the report body. Therefore, the report columns may not line up as expected.
Word supports a maximum page width of 22 inches wide and 22 inches high. If your content is wider than 22 inches, some data may not be displayed in Print Layout view.
Word ignores page header and footer height settings.
Documents created by the Word renderer are not in the Office 2007 DOCX file format but Word 2007 can use the created document because Word 2007 provides full support for the DOC format.
Reports can be viewed in Word 1997 but the lay out will not appear correctly. Word 97 does not support nested tables, 24-bit colors, cell padding and possibly other features that are used by the Word renderer.
After the report is exported, Word paginates the report again. This may cause additional page breaks to be added to the rendered report.
Word does not repeat header rows on pages two and later although you set the RepeatOnNewPage property of the static header row in a tablix (table, matrix, or list) to true. You can define explicit page breaks into your report to force header rows to appear on new pages. However, because Word applies its own pagination to the rendered report exported to Word, results might vary and the header row might not repeat predictably. The static header row is the row that contains the column headings.
Text boxes grow when they contain non-breaking spaces.
When text is exported to Word, text with font decoration in certain fonts may generate unexpected or missing glyphs in the rendered report.
Device Information Settings
You can change some default settings for this renderer, such as omit hyperlinks and drillthrough links or expand all items that can be toggled regardless of the original state of the item when rendered, by changing the device information settings. For more information, see Reporting Services Device Information Settings.