How to Format Text Area in Report

Hi,
I need create report that should look like a letter,
i.e. I have long, formatted text, where I should place few fields from
the record.
For instance:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Sir,
1. Hear goes
2. some formatted text
3. and {Fields!one_field.Value} inserted at line number 3
4. and {Fields!another_field.Value} inserted here
And text continues here
and here, and {Fields!next_filed.Value}
etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I did not found possibility to have one text box with formatted content
and fields/ calculations inserted into it in Report Design.
I tried also divide my text area to few text boxes where static text was
separated from data fields, but I've got into the issues with spacing
between the fields. It looks good in design view, but in preview it adds
extra vertical spaces within the fields. Also it is quite hard to format
a set of text boxes to look like one formatted letter.
Is it possible insert fields into formatted text box? If no, how in
general I should build such report?
Thanks for any help,
Alexander.On Dec 25, 2:38 am, "Alexander N. Treyner" <a...@.treyner.israel.net>
wrote:
> Hi,
> I need create report that should look like a letter,
> i.e. I have long, formatted text, where I should place few fields from
> the record.
> For instance:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dear Sir,
> 1. Hear goes
> 2. some formatted text
> 3. and {Fields!one_field.Value} inserted at line number 3
> 4. and {Fields!another_field.Value} inserted here
> And text continues here
> and here, and {Fields!next_filed.Value}
> etc.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> I did not found possibility to have one text box with formatted content
> and fields/ calculations inserted into it in Report Design.
> I tried also divide my text area to few text boxes where static text was
> separated from data fields, but I've got into the issues with spacing
> between the fields. It looks good in design view, but in preview it adds
> extra vertical spaces within the fields. Also it is quite hard to format
> a set of text boxes to look like one formatted letter.
> Is it possible insert fields into formatted text box? If no, how in
> general I should build such report?
> Thanks for any help,
> Alexander.
You should consider using a table control in place of the textboxes.
This should allow for a little better layout/design flexibility. Also,
concatenating text and expressions/etc together as an expression is
fairly straight forward, i.e.,:
="and " + Fields!one_field.Value + "inserted at line number 3"
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Enrique Martinez
Sr. Software Consultant|||EMartinez wrote:
> You should consider using a table control in place of the textboxes.
> This should allow for a little better layout/design flexibility. Also,
> concatenating text and expressions/etc together as an expression is
> fairly straight forward, i.e.,:
> ="and " + Fields!one_field.Value + "inserted at line number 3"
> Hope this helps.
> Regards,
> Enrique Martinez
> Sr. Software Consultant
I tried to use expression, but it does not allow to format text. How can
I insert CRLF in the expression? I tried chr(10)+chr(13). It looks good
in preview, when I run report from my web site, seems it just ignore it
and print report without CRLF.
I will try to use tables.
Thanks,
Alex.|||EMartinez wrote:
> You should consider using a table control in place of the textboxes.
> This should allow for a little better layout/design flexibility. Also,
> concatenating text and expressions/etc together as an expression is
> fairly straight forward, i.e.,:
> ="and " + Fields!one_field.Value + "inserted at line number 3"
> Hope this helps.
> Regards,
> Enrique Martinez
> Sr. Software Consultant
I tried to use expression, but it does not allow to format text. How can
I insert CRLF in the expression? I tried chr(10)+chr(13). It looks good
in preview, when I run report from my web site, seems it just ignore it
and print report without CRLF.
I will try to use tables.
Thanks,
Alex.|||RS is pretty crummy at this time for this. RS 2008 will have much better
support for rich text. I have not experimented with it in pre-release
software so other than knowing the support will be better (i.e. there will
be support for rich text) I can't give you particulars.
Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
"Alexander N. Treyner" <alex@.treyner.israel.net> wrote in message
news:ufqbGGtRIHA.536@.TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I need create report that should look like a letter,
> i.e. I have long, formatted text, where I should place few fields from the
> record.
> For instance:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dear Sir,
> 1. Hear goes
> 2. some formatted text
> 3. and {Fields!one_field.Value} inserted at line number 3
> 4. and {Fields!another_field.Value} inserted here
> And text continues here
> and here, and {Fields!next_filed.Value}
> etc.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> I did not found possibility to have one text box with formatted content
> and fields/ calculations inserted into it in Report Design.
> I tried also divide my text area to few text boxes where static text was
> separated from data fields, but I've got into the issues with spacing
> between the fields. It looks good in design view, but in preview it adds
> extra vertical spaces within the fields. Also it is quite hard to format a
> set of text boxes to look like one formatted letter.
>
> Is it possible insert fields into formatted text box? If no, how in
> general I should build such report?
> Thanks for any help,
> Alexander.