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 9\Data\NWIND.mdb.

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

Design Time Layout

Runtime Layout

To add an ActiveReport to the Visual Studio project

To connect the report to a data source

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

To create a layout for the report

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
FontSize	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
FontSize	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.

TextBox1

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

TextBox2

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

TextBox3

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

To view the report