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Adding Lines, Rectangles, and Circles to a Report

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Lines, rectangles, and circles add visual interest to the layout of your report. You can use them to separate or emphasize parts of your report.

Drawing Lines

You can add vertical and horizontal lines to your report layout with the Line control. Often, you might want lines between the details contained in the body of the report and the information in the header and the footer.

To draw a line

  1. From the Report Controls toolbar, choose the Line button.
  2. In the Report Designer, drag to size the line.

After drawing the line, you can move or resize it, or change its thickness and color.

Drawing Rectangles

You can draw rectangles on your layout to visually organize the information that prints on the page. You can use them as borders around report controls, report bands, or the entire page.

To draw a rectangle

  1. From the Report Controls toolbar, choose the Rectangle button.
  2. In the Report Designer, drag to size the rectangle.

Drawing Rounded Rectangles and Circles

You can draw circles or rectangles with a variety of rounded corners.

To draw a rectangle or circle

  1. From the Report Controls toolbar, choose the Rounded Rectangle button.
  2. In the Report Designer, drag to size the control.
  3. Double-click the control.
  4. In the Style area, select the corner style you want.
  5. If appropriate, set position options.
  6. Choose OK.

Changing Line Thickness or Style

You can change the thickness of lines used for vertical and horizontal lines, rectangles, and rounded rectangles from a hairline to 6 points wide. You can also change the style of the line from dotted to a combination of dots and dashes.

To change line size or style

  1. Select the line, rectangle, or rounded rectangle controls you want to change.
  2. From the Format menu, choose Pen.
  3. From the submenu, select the appropriate size or style.

See Also

Formatting Field Controls | Adding, Copying, and Deleting Report Controls | Adding a Picture to a Report | Report Designer | Changing Line Thickness or Style | Line control | Creating Reports and Labels