Display sample data in a Data View

On occasion, you may find it useful to display sample data in a Data View. For example, if the data source contains hundreds of records, it is faster and easier to modify the appearance of a Data View while it displays sample data instead of your real data. Or you may want to display sample data while you modify the Data View because the data source may be new and not yet contain any data. With Microsoft Expression Web, you can easily display sample data in a Data View. Sample data appears only in Design view. When you choose to display sample data, your real data is unaffected.

Note

If you have a Data View set to display more than five records, and you choose to display sample data, only five sample records appear in your sample Data View. However, the Data View still displays more than five records when displaying real data.

To display sample data in a Data View

1. In Design view, in your web page, right-click the Data View, and then click Show Common Control Tasks.

   Tip

   You can also click the Data View and then click the arrow in the upper-right corner to show the Common Data View Tasks list. Click the arrow again to hide the list.

2. In the Common Data View Tasks list, in the Data View Preview box, click Show with sample data.

3. To restore the default view, in the Common Data View Tasks list, in the Data View Preview box, click Default.

See also

Tasks

Add a Data View
Apply conditional formatting to a Data View
Sort data in a Data View
Create a formula column in a Data View
Change the layout of a Data View
Modify the columns in a Data View
Filter data in a Data View
Add RSS feeds to a page

Concepts

Data View

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