Character Comb

The Character Comb control is used to add a character combination to a report.

On the Properties window, the Character Comb control properties are divided into the following tabs:

Appearance

Background Color

Specifies the background colour of controls. The functionality is also available on the Report Designer tab ().

Border Color, Border Dash Style, Border Width and Borders

Specifies border settings for controls.

Cell Height

Specifies the character comb cell height in report measurement units.

Cell Horizontal Spacing

Specifies the horizontal spacing between adjacent cells.

Size Mode

Specifies if the cell size is dependent on the font size.

Cell Vertical Spacing

Specifies the vertical spacing between adjacent cells.

Cell Width

Specifies the width of the character comb cells.

Font

Specifies the font settings for controls. Some of the functionality is available on the Report Designer tab.

Foreground Color

Specifies the text colour for controls. The functionality is also available on the Report Designer tab ().

Formatting Rules

Displays the Formatting Rules Editor window, used to choose which rules are applied to a report during report generation, and to define the priority of the applied rules.

Location

Specifies the location of the control in report measurement units.

Size

Specifies the size of the control in report measurement units.

Style Priority

Defines the priority of various styles (for example, background colour or border colour).

Styles

Defines odd and even styles for the controls, as well as assigning an existing style to the them (or a newly created one).

Text Alignment

Changes the alignment of report control text. The functionality is also available on the Report Designer tab.

Behavior

Anchor Horizontally

Specifies the horizontal anchoring style of the control, so that after page rendering it stays attached to the left control, right control, or both. The property setting is useful for data-bound controls located between controls, which are able to resize depending on their contents.

Anchor Vertically

Specifies the vertical anchoring style of the control, so that after page rendering it stays attached to the top control, bottom control, or both. The property setting is useful for data-bound controls located between upper and lower controls, which are able to resize depending on their contents.

If the Anchor Vertically property is set to Bottom or Both, the Can Grow and Can Shrink property values are ignored, and are not considered when calculating a final control height value.

Auto Width

If the check box is selected, the character comb width is automatically increased, if required, to fit the text. If there are other controls next to the current character comb, they are moved to prevent them from overlapping. Note that if a control overlaps the grown character comb, it is not moved by the expanded label.

Can Grow

If the check box is selected, the character comb height is automatically increased, if required, to fit the text. If there are other controls below the current character comb, they are moved down to prevent them from overlapping. Note that if a control overlaps the grown character comb, it is not moved down by the expanded character comb.

Can Publish

Specifies whether or not the control can be printed or exported.

Can Shrink

If the check box is selected, and the text does not completely fill a character comb, the character comb height is decreased to the height of the text. If there are other controls below the current character comb, they are moved up to fill the gap. Note that if a control overlaps the shrunk character comb, it is not moved up under the shrunk character comb.

Edit Options

Provides access to define how the content of the control can be edited in the print preview.

Editor Name

Specifies the name of the editor which can be used to change the content of the control in print preview.

Enabled

Specifies if the content of the control can be edited in print preview.

ID

Specifies a unique identifier for the edit options.

Read Only

Specifies if an editor for customizing the content of a control is enabled in print preview.

Interactive Sorting

Enables the sorting of a report in the print preview by clicking the character comb.

Target Band

Specifies the band for which sorting in print preview is enabled.

Field Name

Specifies the name of the GroupField which is used to sort data in print preview.

Keep Together

Specifies whether the contents of the control can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if the control occupies more space than remains on the page, the property specifies whether the control is split between the current page and the next, or printed entirely on the next page. If the control does not fit on the next page either, the control is split, regardless of the property value.

Multiline

If the check box is selected, a character comb processes newline characters found in the text to start a new line. For example, when editing the character comb text, a new line can be inserted by pressing ENTER, and in this case, the Multiline check box is automatically selected.

Process Duplicates

Determines the behaviour of the control when the data source contains consecutive repeating records. The records can be processed as is (when the property is set to Leave), suppressed except for the first entry (Suppress) and suppressed with a blank space printed instead of the repeated records (Suppress and Shrink).

Process Null Values

Determines whether to process Null (blank) values if they appear in the control data source. Null values can be processed as is (when the property is set to Leave), suppressed (Suppress) and suppressed with a blank space printed instead of the blank records (Suppress and Shrink).

Scripts

Contains events which can be handled with scripts.

Visible

Specifies whether the control is visible when using the print preview.

Word Wrap

If the check box is selected, text entered into the multiline control is wrapped to the next line if it does not fit in the control or is interrupted by a newline character. If the check box is not selected, text entered into the multiline control is displayed on the same line except when forced onto a new line by a newline character.

Data

(Data Bindings)

If the current report is bound to data, the property is used to bind control properties (Bookmark, Navigation URL, Tag and Text) to a data field obtained from the report data source, and to apply a format string.

Null Value Text

Specifies the displayed character comb text when the value of the bound data field is null.

Summary

Performs calculations (for example, summary, max, min or average) on a data field.

Note: Summarization is possible for a single data column only. To perform calculations with several data fields, use calculated fields.

Tag

Adds additional information to a report, for example, the id, by which the report can then be accessible via scripts.

If the current report has a data source, the Tag property can be bound to a data field obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and from the Tag > Binding drop-down list, select the required data field.

Text

Defines a line of static text to be displayed. To type several lines of text, select the Multiline property on the Behavior tab.

When a label is selected, entered text is automatically added to the control.

If the current report has a data source, the Text property can be bound to a data field obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and from the Text > Binding drop-down list, select the required data field.

Text Format String

Displays the Format String Editor window, which is used to manage and customise the format of the control using a predefined format style.

Xlsx Format String

Specifies the Excel format for the control when exported to an Excel file.

Miscellaneous

(Name)

Determines the name of the control, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Properties window or via scripts.

Bookmark and Parent Bookmark

These properties are used to create a hierarchical structure within a report called a document map.

If the current report has a data source, the Bookmark property can be bound to a data field, obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the Data > Data Bindings drop-down list and select the required data field.

Navigation URL and Navigation Target

Use the Navigation URL property to specify a URL for web browser navigation when the control is clicked. The web browser displays a page in a window or a frame as specified in the Navigation Target property.

Note: A URL must have an appropriate prefix for example, 'http://'). Cross-references can be created within the report by assigning the name of the target control to the Navigation URL property, and setting the Navigation Target property to ‘_self'.

If the current report has a data source, the Navigation URL property can be bound to a data field obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the Data > Data Bindings drop-down list and select the required data field.

Right to Left

Specifies the content orientation of the controls.

Snap Line Margins

Specifies the margins for the control, which are maintained when the control is aligned using snap lines.

Favorites

Right-click on the Favorites tab and select Edit Favorite Property List to display the Favorite Properties Editor, which is used to customise the available properties on the Favorites tab.

Refer to Conditionally Modify Control Display, Styles Concepts, Handle Events via Scripts, Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Controls to Data), Add Bookmarks and Create Hyperlinks for further information.