Understanding the Design Surface (Report Builder 2.0)

The Report Builder 2.0 design surface is the main work area for designing your reports. To place report items such as data regions, subreports, text boxes, images, rectangles, and lines in your report, you add them from the Ribbon to the design surface. There, you can add groups, expressions, parameters, filters, actions, visibility, and formatting to your report items.

You can also change:

  • The report body, header, and footer properties such as border and fill color by right-clicking the white area of the design surface, outside any report items, and clicking Report Body Properties.

  • The properties of the report itself, such as page setup, by right-clicking the blue area around the design surface and clicking Report Properties.

  • The properties of report items by right-clicking them and clicking Properties.

For information on using the keyboard to manipulate items on the design surface, see Keyboard Shortcuts (Report Builder 2.0)

Design Surface Size and Print Area

The design surface size may be different from the page size print area you specify to print the report. Changing the size of the design surface will not change the print area of your report. No matter what size you set for the print area of your report, the full design area size does not change. For more information, see How to: Set Print Page Margins (Report Builder 2.0).

Note

To display the ruler, on the View tab, select the Ruler check box.