Controls Positioning

Two facilities are provided in the Report Designer to precisely align elements to each other:

• Snap Grid

• Snap Lines

Choose which mode to use for controls alignment within a report by setting its Snapping Mode.

Snap Grid

When a report is being designed, it is lined up by the Snap Grid. This helps to establish the distance between report elements, and to precisely align them to each other.

To quickly align a control to the report's Snap Grid, right click the control, and in the Context Menu, click Align To Grid.

Specify whether the Snap Grid should be visible by setting the Draw the Grid option in the Property Grid of the report.

The Snap Grid Size, which is measured in the measurement units set for your report, can also be adjusted.

The Snap to Grid option specifies whether controls are snapped to the grid when they are moved as usual (with no additional keys being held down). When the Snap to Grid option is enabled, the default move behavior works as follows:

• For controls to be aligned to the Snap Grid while being moved:

  • Using the keyboard: move them using the ARROW keys.

  • Using the mouse: move them as usual.

• For controls to ignore the Snap Grid while being moved:

  • Using the keyboard: move them using ARROW keys while hold down CTRL.

  • Using the mouse: move them while hold down ALT.

Disabling the Snap to Grid option swaps the default manipulation to its opposite (press CTRL or ALT, to enable the grid snapping).

Snap Lines

Instead of the Snap Grid for control positioning and alignment, Snap Lines may be used. These are guide lines that appear when a control is being moved, and indicate the distance to other report elements (bands and controls).

Users can modify its default Snap Line spacing for each report element (padding for bands and panels, and margins for other controls) using the Property Grid.