The Label control for Section reports is very similar to the standard Visual Studio Label control. Since, by inheriting from the ARControl object, it can bind to data with the DataField property, and since you can enter static text in the TextBox control, the main difference between the two controls is the Angle property of the Label control, and the following properties of the TextBox control: CanGrow, CanShrink, CountNullValues, Culture, DistinctField, OutputFormat, SummaryFunc, SummaryGroup, SummaryRunning, and SummaryType.
This control may become obsolete if the Angle property is added to the TextBox, and then will be kept only for compatibility with previous versions.
Important Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Angle | Gets or sets the angle (slope) of the text within the control area. Set the Angle property to 900 to display text vertically. |
| CharacterSpacing | Gets or sets the space between characters in points. |
| DataField | Gets or sets the field name from the data source to bind to the control. |
| HyperLink | Gets or sets a URL to which the viewer navigates when the user clicks the label at run time. The URL becomes an anchor tag or a hyperlink in HTML and PDF exports. |
| LineSpacing | Gets or sets the space between lines in points. |
| MultiLine | Gets or sets a value indicating whether to allow text to break to multiple lines within the control. |
| ShrinkToFit | Gets or sets a value indicating whether to decrease the font size so that all of the text shows within the boundaries of the control. |
| Style | Gets or sets a style string for the label. |
| Text | Gets or sets the text to show on the report. |
| TextJustify | Specifies how to distribute text when the Alignment property is set to Justify. With any other Alignment setting, this property is ignored. |
| VerticalAlignment | Gets or sets the vertical position of the label's text within the bounds of the control. |
| VerticalText | Indicates whether to render the label's text vertically. |
| WrapMode | Indicates whether a multi-line label control wraps words or characters to the beginning of the next line when necessary. |
You can double-click in the Label control to enter edit mode and enter text directly in the control, or you can enter text in the Properties window or in code through the Text property.
You can format text in the Label control in edit mode using the ActiveReports toolbar, or you can modify properties in the Properties window. Formats apply to all of the text in the control. Text formatting changes in the Properties window immediately appear in the control, and changes made in the toolbar are immediately reflected in the Properties window.
In edit mode, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts.
| Key Combination | Action |
|---|---|
| Enter | New line. |
| Alt + Enter | Saves modifications and exits edit mode. |
| Esc | Cancels modifications and exits edit mode. |
In the End User Designer, you can disable this feature in the EditModeEntering and EditModeExit events.
With the control selected on the report, in the Commands section at the bottom of the Properties window, you can click the Property dialog command to open the dialog.
General
Name: Enter a name for the label that is unique within the report. This name is displayed in the Document Outline and in XML exports. You can only use underscore (_) as a special character in the Name field. Other special characters such as period (.), space ( ), forward slash (/), back slash (\), exclamation (!), and hyphen (-) are not supported.
Tag: Enter a string that you want to persist with the control. If you access this property in code, it is an object, but in the Properties window or Property dialog, it is a string.
Visible: Clear this check box to hide the control.
DataField: Select a field from the data source to bind to the control.
Text: Enter static text to show in the label.
HyperLink: Enter a URL to use in the Viewer HyperLink event. The URL automatically converts to an anchor tag or hyperlink in PDF and HTML exports.
Appearance
Background Color: Select a color to use for the background of the label.
Angle: Use the slider to set the degree of slope for the text within the control area.
Font
Name: Select a font family name or a theme font.
Size: Choose the size in points for the font.
Style: Choose Normal or Italic.
Weight: Choose from Normal or Bold.
Color: Choose a color to use for the text.
Decoration: Select check boxes for Underline and Strikeout.
GDI Charset: Enter a value to indicate the GDI character set to use. For a list of valid values, see MSDN Font.GDICharSet Property.
GDI Vertical: Select this checkbox to indicate that the font is derived from a GDI vertical font.
Format
Line spacing: Enter a value in points to use for the amount of space between lines.
Character spacing: Enter a value in points to use for the amount of space between characters.
Multiline: Select this check box to allow text to render on multiple lines within the control.
RightToLeft: Select this check box to reverse the text direction.
Vertical text: Select this check box for top to bottom text.
Alignment
Vertical alignment: Choose Top, Middle, or Bottom.
Horizontal alignment: Choose Left, Center, Right, or Justify.
Justify method: Choose Auto, Distribute, or DistributeAllLines.
Note: You must select Justify in the Horizontal alignment property to enable the Justification method property options.
Wrap mode: Choose NoWrap, WordWrap, or CharWrap to determine whether and how text breaks to the next line.
Enter values in points to set the amount of space to leave around the label.