First Look at the Report Designer
- 2 minutes to read
The previous step explained how to use the Report Wizard to create a sample data-bound report. In this step, we provide information on the DevExpress Visual Studio-integrated Report Designer.
Tip
The created reports are platform-agnostic. You can reuse these reports in applications created for different platforms.
Closing the Report Wizard adds a new XtraReport class to your application and opens the created report in the integrated Report Designer:
The design surface displays a report’s structure and contents. You can use the tools on the Report Designer’s panels to design the report:
- access the report’s data source schema in the Field List;
- drop report controls from the Toolbox to the design surface;
- use the Properties panel to set up the report controls;
- access the report’s elements in the Report Explorer;
- use the Report Gallery to create frequently used templates and apply them afterward to other reports;
- use the Group and Sort panel to manage the report’s group and sort settings.
When loading the Report Designer, you can see the report editing surface displaying a report’s structure and contents.
When creating a blank report, this surface displays the top and bottom page margins along with an empty detail band (by default).
Tip
You can make your report display different content by adding other controls to report bands.
See Introduction to Banded Reports for basic information about report bands.
You can change the default zoom factor of the Report Designer using the zoom panel:
While designing a report, you can preview the resulting document by switching to the Preview tab below a report’s design surface:
This opens a Print Preview, fills a report’s data source and generates the report document’s pages.
Switching to the Scripts tab enables you to manage and customize report scripts.
Next Step: Create a Report from A to Z