Overview of Report Designer Components

The majority of the tasks you perform when creating or editing a custom report are done through the ribbon, design surface, and data dictionary components of the report designer.

These components provide access to the data, report sections, parameters, and other items you use to create and edit custom reports.

The ribbon is shown at the top of the content pane and gives you access to the tools you need to create and edit reports. The design surface is shown in the middle of the content pane and shows the data area and other fields. The data dictionary is shown at the bottom of the content pane and gives you access to the fields in the database that you can use in your custom reports.