The TextBox report item is used to display text on a report. This screenshot shows two TextBox report items.
TextBox can display literal text for titles, descriptions, and labels, or dynamic text based on expressions. Every
cell in a Table, List or CrossTab also contains a TextBox, which can be formatted in the same way as stand-alone TextBoxes in your report.
The expressions in a TextBox can contain literal text, point to a database field or calculate data.
Use a Panel item when you want to control the TextBox layout and dependency with other report items. For more information,
see Panel.
In order to format separate chunks of text (i.e. different words) or insert HTML-formatted text into a report, use the
HtmlTextBox report item.
Growing and Shrinking
By default, TextBoxes are a set size. If you want to allow a TextBox to expand vertically based on its contents,
set the CanGrow property to True (default value).
If you want to allow a TextBox to shrink based on its contents set the
CanShrink property to
True (default value is False). The TextBox would always grow to accomodate the first line of text even when CanGrow is False.
TextBox Orientation
You can use the Angle property to change the text orientation in a TextBox. Orienting TextBoxes can help you create
more readable reports, support locale-specific text orientation, fit more columns on a printed report that
has fixed page size, and create reports with more graphical appeal.
Formatting Considerations
Before you apply a format, you should consider the following:
- By default, numbers are formatted to reflect the cultural settings on the client computer. Use formatting strings
to specify how numbers are displayed so that formatting is consistent regardless of where the person who is viewing the
report is located.
- The formats provided on the Number page are a subset of the .NET Framework standard numeric format strings. To
format a number or date using a custom format that is not shown in the dialog box, you can use any .NET Framework format
strings for numbers or dates. For more information about custom format strings, see the Formatting Types
topic on MSDN.
- If a custom format string has been specified, it has a higher priority over default settings that are
culture-specific. For example, suppose you set a custom format string of "#,###" to show the number 1234 as 1,234. This
may have different meaning to users in different parts of the world. Before specifying a custom format, consider how the
chosen format will affect users of different cultures viewing the report.
- If you specify an invalid format string, it will override the actual Value.
See also Format Builder Dialog.
Using In-place editing
The in-place editor for TextBox report items
allows you to quickly enter text directly into the designer where the report item is rather than having to go look
for a property in the Property Window. To activate the in-place editor, double-click the TextBox
report item or select the report item and press F2. Once the in-place editor is activated:
- CTRL-Enter creates a new line.
- Enter accepts all changes.
- Esc discards all changes.
- Moving focus away from the TextBox also accepts all changes.
The screenshot below shows a TextBox with the in-place editor active.
Using Expression editor
Information on using the expression editor is available in the Edit Expression Dialog article.
 Note | Pressing the Enter key inserts a new paragraph or new list item depending on the current context. Note that it does NOT insert <br /> (new line). To insert new line, use the button on the toolbar) |
Embedded expressions
The item supports embedded expressions for mail merge functionality. Embedded expressions give you the freedom to get and insert data-driven information directly into the text box report item to produce customized reports and mail merging.
See Also