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ActiveReports supports newspaper column layouts in both the Detail and Group sections. You can render the columns either horizontally or vertically in the section with options to break the column on the Group section (i.e. start a new column on the change of a group).

There is also a Boolean ColumnGroupKeepTogether property on the GroupHeader. When set to True, the ColumnGroupKeepTogether property attempts to prevent a group from splitting across columns. If a group cannot fit in the current column, it tries the next. If the group is too large for a single column, the property is ignored.

Note: The ColumnGroupKeepTogether property only works when the GroupHeader's GroupKeepTogether property is set to All.

This walkthrough illustrates how to create a simple report using columns, and is split up into the following activities:

Connecting the report to a data source
Adding controls to the report to display data
Viewing the report

Note: This walkthrough uses the Northwind database. By default, in ActiveReports, the Northwind.mdb file is located at [User Documents folder]\GrapeCity Samples\ActiveReports 13\Data\NWIND.mdb.

When you complete this walkthrough you get a layout that looks similar to the following at design time and at run time.

Design-Time Layout

Run-Time Layout

On the detail section band, click the Data Source Icon.
In the Report Data Source dialog that appears, on the OLE DB tab, next to Connection String, click the Build button.
In the Data Link Properties window that appears, select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and click the Next button to move to the Connection tab.
Click the ellipsis (...) button to browse to your database, for example the NWind.mdb sample database. Click Open once you have selected the appropriate database path.
Click the Test Connection button to see if you have successfully connected to the database.
Click OK to close the Data Link Properties window and return to the Report Data Source dialog. Notice that the Connection String field gets filled automatically.

In the Query field on the OLE DB tab, enter the following SQL query.

SQL Query	Copy Code
SELECT Country, CompanyName, ContactName, Phone FROM Customers ORDER BY Country

Click OK to save the data source and return to the report design surface.

Right-click the design surface of the report and select Insert, then Group Header/Footer to add a GroupHeader/Footer section.

Select the group header and in the Properties Window, set the properties as follows.

Property Name	Property Value
Name	ghCountry
BackColor	Gold
DataField	Country
ColumnGroupKeepTogether	True
GroupKeepTogether	All

Select the group footer and in the Properties window, set the BackColor property to Goldenrod.

In the Report Explorer, drag the Country field onto the GroupHeader section and in the Properties window, set its properties as follows.

Property Name	Property Value
Location	0, 0 in
Size	3.25, 0.2 in
Alignment	Center
Font > Size	12
Font > Bold	True

Select the PageHeader section and in the Properties window, set the BackColor property to Linen.

From the toolbox, drag a Label control onto the PageHeader section and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows:

Property Name	Property Value
Location	0, 0 in
Size	6.5, 0.25 in
Alignment	Center
Font > Size	14
Text	Customer Telephone List by Country

Select the Detail section and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

Property Name	Property Value
CanShrink	True
ColumnCount	2

In the Report Explorer, expand the Fields node, then the Bound node. Drag the following fields onto the Detail section and set the properties of each textbox as indicated.

Property Name	Property Value
DataField	CompanyName
Location	0, 0 in
Size	1.15, 0.2 in
Font > Size	8pt

Property Name	Property Value
DataField	ContactName
Location	1.15, 0 in
Size	1.15, 0.2 in
Font > Size	8pt

Property Name	Property Value
DataField	Phone
Location	2.3, 0 in
Size	0.95, 0.2 in
Font > Size	8pt