Show All

Hide All

Designer buttons are located to the right of the designer tabs along the bottom of the designer, and are enabled when you are on the Designer tab. They allow you to control settings for the design surface.

Grid Settings

Dimension lines appear during a drag operation, and run from the borders of the report control or data region being moved or resized to the edges of the report designer surface. Dimension lines let you track the location of the control as you move it by displaying the distance between the control and the edge of the writable area of the report.

Button Type	Behavior

Note: With section reports, you can change the number of grid columns and rows in the Report Settings dialog on the Global Settings tab. With page reports and RDL reports, you can change the grid spacing in the Report Properties dialog on the General tab.

By default, grid lines and dots appear on the report design surface. You can click this button to hide the grid and design your report on a blank page. Lines or dots are also removed from the design surface when you hide the grid, but Snap to Lines or Snap to Grid settings remain unaffected.

Button Type	Behavior

You can click this button to have dots appear on the design surface in between the grid lines to guide you in the placement of controls.

Button Type	Behavior

You can click this button to have faint grey lines appear on the design surface in between the grid lines to guide you in the placement of controls.

Button Type	Behavior

Note: Only one option out of Hide Grid, Show Dots and Show Lines can be selected at one time.

Control Drag and Drop Settings

These settings allow you to specify how you want controls to behave when you drag and drop them on the design surface.

Tip: If you plan to export a report to Excel format, use Snap Lines or Snap to Grid to ensure that your controls are aligned in columns and rows as it prevents overlapping. This makes the export to excel closer to how a report looks at run or design time.

This setting aligns the control you are dragging with other controls on the report design surface. When you drag the control around, snap lines appear when it is aligned with other controls or with the edges of the report, and when you drop it, it snaps into place in perfect alignment. See Snap Lines for more information.

Button Type	Behavior

This setting aligns the control you are dragging with grid lines on the report design surface. When you drop the control, it snaps into place in alignment with the nearest grid mark. To place your controls freely on the report design surface, turn this setting off.

Button Type	Behavior

Mouse Modes

These settings allow you to specify how you want the mouse to behave in the designer.

In Select mode, when you click items on the report designer surface, you select them. Use this mode for editing, data binding and styling in the Designer tab. An arrow cursor appears in the Select mode.

Button Type	Behavior

Use the Pan mode to make navigation easier. A hand cursor appears in Pan mode and you can navigate through your report by pressing the left mouse button and dragging the report to the desired position.

Tip: To enable Pan mode while you are in Select Mode, hold down the middle mouse button and move to the desired location with the hand cursor.

Button Type	Behavior