Designer Settings Dialog

• Oct 08, 2025
• 6 minutes to read

The Designer Settings dialog in the WinForms Report Designer allows users to configure report design and document generation settings globally at the application level. This dialog centralizes frequently used options, streamlines panel management, and simplifies customization of default report behavior.

The dialog groups settings into the following categories:

• General – Report Designer UI and dock panel options.
• Data – application-wide data binding and schema discovery settings.
• New Report – default layout, appearance, and script options for newly created reports.
• Export – PDF and CSV export behavior.

Invoke the Dialog

You can invoke the Designer Settings dialog in one of the following ways:

• Click the Settings bar item in the Home ribbon tab:

  

• Select the Settings option in the application menu:

  

Important

The Settings command may be missing if you set up the Ribbon using an earlier version of the Report Designer. In such cases, update the Ribbon.

Dialog UI

The left panel of the dialog contains four categories, each with a set of Report Designer and report settings.

Specify settings and click OK to apply them and close the dialog. Click Reset to Default to restore initial values.

The following settings are available:

General

This category contains Report Designer UI and dock panel settings.

Default Cross Tab Control

Specifies the default control used to present cross-tab data (XRCrossTab or XRPivotGrid).

Display Chart Designer Automatically

Specifies whether to invoke the Chart Designer on adding an XRChart to a report.

Show Dimension Notations

Specifies whether to display exact element size (dimension notations) on the reporting surface during resize operations.

Show Data Analyzer Notification

Specifies whether to display a notification popup with errors that occurred during report creation.

Properties Panel

Specifies whether to display the Properties panel on the Report Designer surface.

Report Explorer

Specifies whether to display the Report Explorer panel on the Report Designer surface.

Report Gallery

Specifies whether to display the Report Gallery panel on the Report Designer surface.

Field List

Specifies whether to display the Field List panel on the Report Designer surface.

Group and Sort

Specifies whether to display the Group and Sort panel on the Report Designer surface.

Report Designer Analyzer

Specifies whether to display the Report Designer Analyzer panel on the Report Designer surface.

Data

This category contains application-wide settings related to data binding.

Data Binding Mode

Specifies if the Report Designer binds report controls to data via Expressions (default) or via Data Bindings (legacy option).

Convert Bindings to Expressions

Specifies whether end users are prompted to convert direct data bindings to customizable expressions.

Data Source Request Timeout

Maximum time the Report Designer waits for an SQL data source response, in seconds.

Field List Max Search Depth

Field List search box does not look for fields beyond the specified nesting level.

MongoDB Schema Discovery Item Count

Specifies how many documents (records) the Report Designer scans in each collection in order to build the schema.

JSON Schema Discovery Item Count

Specifies how many documents (records) the Report Designer scans in each collection in order to build the schema.

Display Date and Time Components in the Field List

Specifies whether to expand date-time fields in the Field List panel to reveal their components so you can directly bind them to report controls.

New Report

This category contains default settings for all new reports created in the Report Designer.

Paper Kind

Specifies the report size.

Size

Specifies report page height and width measured in report units. You can specify the report size only if Paper Kind is set to Custom.

Margins

Specifies report page margins, measured in report units.

Font

Specifies the default font used in reports.

Report Unit

Specifies the default units of measurement used in reports to define element locations, dimensions, and margins.

Landscape

Specifies whether report page orientation is landscape.

Snap Mode

Specifies how report elements snap and align to each other.

Draw Grid

Displays or hides the design surface grid.

Default File Name

Sets the default file name used when exporting a report from Print Preview.

Default Export Format

Sets the default export format in Print Preview.

Script Language

Specifies the programming language used in report scripts.

Important

This setting is initially hidden. To activate report scripts and display the Script Language setting, allow script execution at application startup. Review the following help topic for more information: Scripts - Security Considerations.

Export

This category contains application-wide settings for export to PDF and CSV.

Use GDI+ Line Break Algorithm

Uses GDI+ line breaks to optimize text layout in certain languages.

Follow Report Layout

Attempts to preserve the report layout. May add extra rows or columns to match element positions.

Manage Dialog Visibility

Call the XRDesignMdiController.SetCommandVisibility(ReportCommand, CommandVisibility) method to manage the Designer Settings dialog visibility.

The following code snippet hides the Designer Settings dialog from the Report Designer:

C#

reportDesigner1.SetCommandVisibility(ReportCommand.Settings, CommandVisibility.None);

VB.NET

reportDesigner1.SetCommandVisibility(ReportCommand.Settings, CommandVisibility.None)

Pre-Configure Default Designer Settings

You can define default values for dialog settings. These values are applied when the dialog opens and restored when the user clicks Reset to Default.

Configure the following settings depending on the scope:

Designer-Level Settings (Application Scope)

Use the UserDesignerOptions class properties to specify Report Designer settings at application startup. UserDesignerOptions can be accessed with the Settings.Default property.

Report-Level Settings (New Report Scope)

Use ReportSettings properties to specify default values for report settings. ReportSettings can be accessed with the XRDesignMdiController.DefaultReportSettings property.

Data-Level Settings (Data Source Scope)

You can also specify data-related default values for MongoDB Schema Discovery Item Count, JSON Schema Discovery Item Count, and Data Source Request Timeout options using the following properties:

• DataSourceWizardSettings.MongoDBWizardSettings
• DataSourceWizardSettings.JsonWizardSettings
• DataSourceWizardSettings.SqlWizardSettings

A DataSourceWizardSettings object can be accessed with the XRDesignMdiController.DefaultReportSettings property.

Example

The following code snippet specifies Default File Name and Default Export Format values:

C#

reportDesigner1.DefaultReportSettings.ExportSettings.FileName = "TestReport";
reportDesigner1.DefaultReportSettings.ExportSettings.ExportFormat = DevExpress.XtraPrinting.ExportFormat.Xlsx;

VB.NET

reportDesigner1.DefaultReportSettings.ExportSettings.FileName = "TestReport"
reportDesigner1.DefaultReportSettings.ExportSettings.ExportFormat = DevExpress.XtraPrinting.ExportFormat.Xlsx

When a user invokes the Designer Settings dialog, specified properties look as follows:

Note

User selection overrides default values specified in code.

Troubleshooting

The Settings Bar Item is Missing in the Ribbon

Select xrDesignRibbonController and switch to the Properties window. Click the Update command to add the Settings option to the Ribbon.