Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Bible

Designing the Report Layout

The Report Designer contains a rich feature set for designing reports. This section discusses the basics of report design and demonstrates creating a report design, grouping and sorting data, and adding data visualizations to a report.

The Design tab in the Report Designer contains rich features to make formatting even the most complicated reports possible. The page layout contains three sections: header, body, and footer. Table 55.3 summarizes the behavior and purpose of each section. Designing the report layout is similar to working with Windows Forms. Report items are added by dragging them from the Toolbox onto the report.

Table 55.3 Report Sections

Section	Description
Header	By default, content in the header appears on every page. This is a good place to include the report title to indicate why the report exists. The PrintOnFirstPage and PrintOnLastPage properties can be used to prevent the header from appearing on the first and last pages.
Body	If the report contains parameters, it's a good idea to add a section to the top or bottom of the body to show the value of the parameters used to execute the report, and perhaps a short description of what the report represents. Adding this detail at the top or bottom of the body ensures that the information is printed only once, rather than on every page.
Footer	Like the header, the footer also appears on every page by default and can be turned off for the first and last pages. This is a good place ...