Lesson 5: Formatting a report (Reporting Services)

Now that you've added a data region and some fields to the Sales Orders report, you can format the date and currency fields and the column headers.

Format the Date

The Date field expression displays date and time information by default. You can format it to display only the date.

Select the Design tab.
Right-click the cell with the [Date] field expression and then select Text Box Properties.
Select Number, and then in the Category field, select Date.
In the Type box, select January 31, 2000.
Select OK to apply the format.
Preview the report to see the change to the [Date] field formatting, and then change back to design view.

The LineTotal field expression displays a general number. You can format it to display the number as currency.

Right-click the cell with the [LineTotal] expression, and select Text Box Properties.
Select Number in the left-most column list box, and Currency from the Category list box.
If your regional setting is English (United States), the defaults in the Type list box should be:
- Decimal places: 2
- Negative numbers: ($12345.00)
- Symbol: $ English (United States)
Select Use 1000 separator (,). If the sample text displays $12,345.00, then your settings are correct.
Select OK to apply the format.
Preview the report to see the change to the [LineTotal] expression column and then change back to design view.

You can add other formatting to your report by highlighting the header row, and adjusting the widths of the data columns.

Select the table so that column and row handles appear above and next to the table. The gray bars along the top and side of the table are the column and row handles.
Point to the line between column handles so that the cursor changes into a double arrow. Drag the columns to the size you want.
Select the row containing column header labels and from the Format menu, select Font > Bold.
Preview your report. It should display as below:
From the File menu, select Save All to save the report.

In this lesson, you successfully formatted column headers and field expressions. Next, you're going to add grouping and totals to your report. Continue with Lesson 6: Adding Grouping and Totals (Reporting Services).