1. Create a new Visual Studio project.
2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
3. In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 12 RDL Report and in the Name field, rename the file as rptRDLColumnLayout.
4. Click the Add button to open a new RDL report in the designer.

See Adding an ActiveReport to a Project for information on adding different report layouts.

1. In the Report Explorer, right-click the Data Sources node and select the Add Data Source option or select Data Source from the Add button.
   
2. In the Report Data Source Dialog that appears, select the General page and in the Name field, enter a name like ReportData.
3. On this page, create a connection to the Reels database. See Connect to a Data Source for information on connecting to a data source.

1. In the Report Explorer, right-click the data source node and select the Add Data Set option or select Data Set from the Add button.
2. In the DataSet Dialog that appears, select the General page and enter the name of the dataset as CustomerList. This name appears as a child node to the data source icon in the Report Explorer.
3. On the Query page of this dialog, in the Query field enter the following SQL query.

   SQL Query	Copy Code
   SELECT TOP 100 * FROM CustomerMailingList UNION SELECT TOP 100 * FROM CustomerMailingList WHERE Country = "USA" ORDER BY 8 DESC

4. Click the Validate DataSet icon at the top right hand corner above the Query box to validate the query.
   
   
5. Click OK to close the dialog. Your data set and queried fields appear as nodes in the Report Explorer.

1. In the Report Explorer, select Body and set the following properties in the properties window.

   Property Name	Property Value
   Columns	2
   ColumnSpacing	0.25in
   Size	2.625in, 1in

2. In the Visual Studio toolbox, go to the ActiveReports 12 Page Report tab and drag the List data region onto the design surface.
3. In the Properties Window, set the following properties for the List.

   Property Name	Property Value
   DataSetName	CustomerList
   Size	2.5in, 1in

4. In the Visual Studio toolbox, go to the ActiveReports 12 Page Report tab and drag three TextBox controls onto the List data region added above.
5. In the Properties Window, set the following properties for TextBox1.

   Property Name	Property Value
   Location	0in, 0in
   Size	2.5in, 0.25in
   DataElementName	FirstName
   Name	FirstName
   Value	=Fields!FirstName.Value & IIF( Fields!MiddleInitial.Value Is Nothing, "", " " & Fields!MiddleInitial.Value ) & " " & Fields!LastName.Value
   CanGrow	False

6. In the Properties Window, set the following properties for TextBox2.

   Property Name	Property Value
   Location	0in, 0.25in
   Size	2.5in, 0.25in
   DataElementName	CustomerAddress1
   Name	CustomerAddress1
   Value	=Fields!Address1.Value & IIF( Fields!Address2.Value is Nothing, "", vbCrLf & Fields!Address2.Value )
   CanGrow	False
   CanShrink	True

7. In the Properties window, set the following properties for TextBox3.

   Property Name	Property Value
   Location	0in, 0.50in
   Size	2.5in, 0.25in
   DataElementName	CustomerCity
   Name	CustomerCity
   Value	=Fields!City.Value & ", " & Fields!Region.Value & "  " & Fields!PostalCode.Value & "   " & IIf( Fields!Country.Value = "USA", "", Fields!Country.Value )
   CanGrow	False

• Click the preview tab to view the report at design time.

OR

• Open the report in the Viewer. See Windows Forms Viewer for further information.