Building Reports in SQL Server 2005—Formatting the Output

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Formatting the Output

You can modify several quick and easy report properties to add a more professional look and feel to the report:

• Border Style

• Format

• Padding

By using the Shift or Control key, or by clicking and dragging the mouse, it is easy to apply report properties to many cells simultaneously. For the Employee Name, Estimated Cost, and Service Count header cells, you will add a border to the bottom, separating the record header from the actual data. First, highlight the three header column cells by holding down the Control key and clicking each cell. Next, open or expand the Properties window. The Properties window contains a Border Style property for each area of the selected cells—top, bottom, left, and right. For this example, select Solid for the bottom border.

With the Properties window still open, click the Estimated Cost detail row cell. Format the cell in the Properties window to be currency by adding the formatting command C0 for the Format property.

Two of the groups inside the report, Service Type and Patient, would be more distinguishable if they were indented. You can select each group cell individually and in the Properties window modify the Padding property from the default of 2 points to 10 points for Service Type and 15 points for Patient Name.

After you apply the formatting, you can immediately see how these changes affect the output by clicking the Preview tab (see Figure 4-5).

Figure 4-4. Employee Service Cost report details

The EmployeeServiceCost_Format.rdl report in the Pro_SSRS project has the three formatting elements applied.