Shape fields are used to display geometric shapes in reports. Lines are often used as separators, rectangles are used to highlight groups of fields or to create tables and grids, and so on.

You can also set rules for defining visibility of a shape in the expressions. For example, if you want Product names to be enclosed in a rectangular shape when the Reorder Level is less than the Units in Stock, you can write following expression in the OnPrint property of the report, to define when to turn on the visibility of shape:

        If UnitsInStock < ReorderLevel Then
        Shapefld.Visible = True
        Else
        Shapefld.Visible = False
        End If

This scenario is discussed in detail in the topic Showing or Hiding a Field Depending on a Value.