Change the Display of a Report Section

Sections that are included in a report can be customized, allowing you to further tailor your report to your audience.

The available style options for each section vary. You can change the fill colors and borders of all the sections, and you can also change the margins in the output descriptions, search criteria descriptions, data area, and data exceptions sections.

Section styles can also be changed by applying report styles with the Auto Format feature. If the style selected using auto format is applied after you manually modify a section style, your edits to the section style are overwritten. Editing a section style after an auto-format style is applied overwrites the auto-format style. See Apply a Style to a Report for more information about the Auto Format feature.

Tip: The following procedure describes editing section styles from the Edit Style window. However, you can also adjust style options by selecting the report section and using the buttons on the Options tab.

1. Right-click the section on the design surface that you want to edit and select Edit Style.
   Note: The Edit Style window for some report sections includes an Options tab that allows you to set layout options.
2. Click the Margins tab to modify the amount of space surrounding the contents in the section.
3. Enter the number of pixels between the text and the left, right, top, and bottom margins.
4. If you’re editing a style for a report section, such as the report header, enter the number of pixels you want between the section’s content in the Spacing field.
5. Click the Fill tab to modify the background fill colors for the selected section.
   When editing styles for report sections that do not have margins, the Fill tab is the active tab when you edit the style.
6. Enter field information.

   Fill Tab

   Field	Description
   Color/Top Color/Left Color	The text description for this option varies depending on the gradient mode you select. Click this box to select a primary color as the background.
   No Fill	Select this check box to clear any fill colors previously selected. If this box is selected, the other options on the Fill window are disabled except for the Color option. Selecting a color automatically clears the No Fill check box and enables the other options.
   Gradient Mode	Select the positioning of the primary and secondary colors for the background from the Gradient Mode drop-down list. Using gradient coloring lets you merge two colors. The following options are available. None—Select this option to use only the primary color as the fill color. If you select None, the Gradient Color field is disabled. Top to Bottom—Select this option to merge the colors from the top of the background to the bottom. Left to Right—Select this option to merge the colors from the left of the background to the right.
   Gradient Color/Bottom Color/Right Color	The text description for this option varies depending on the gradient mode you select. Click this box to select a secondary color to merge with the primary color. When you do so, the fill colors merge using the method defined in the Gradient Mode menu.
   Transparency(%)	Select a percentage to define how intense the fill colors are. A setting of 100% is completely transparent, which prevents the fill colors from displaying. A setting of 0% has no transparency, resulting in intense background colors. The selected percentage is immediately reflected in the Preview field, so you can scroll through the transparency percentages to find a value that best suits your needs.
   Preview	This area provides a sample of how the fill colors you select will appear on the report background.

7. Click the Borders tab to modify the borders of a report section.
   1. Enter field information.

      Borders Tab

      Field	Description
      Color	Click this box to select a color for the border.
      Style	Click this drop-down list to select a border styles. Options include Solid, Dashed, Dotted, Inset, Outset, Double, Groove, Ridge, Rounded, or Separator. The separator option lets you add empty space around the report section.
      Weight	Click this drop-down list to select the pixel size of the border. You can select a number between 1 and 10 pixels.
      Preview	This area defines the placement of the borders you define. Select any of the options to place the borders, or click the area in the Preview white space where you want the border.
      Border buttons	Click a button showing a border to add or remove the selected border attributes from the top, bottom, left, or right sides of the component. Alternatively, you can click the appropriate location in the Preview area to add or remove borders.

8. Click OK.