Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance

To conditionally change a control's appearance, follow these steps.

for further information on using styles in Reporting, refer to Styles Concepts.

1. Create a new report.

2. Bind the report to a data source.

3. Drag the required fields from the Field List onto the report's Detail band.

   

4. Select the report by clicking anywhere on the blank area around its band.

5. In the Property Grid, locate the Formatting Rules Sheet property and click the ellipsis.

   The Formatting Rule Sheet Editor is then displayed.

   This is used to manage and customize formatting rules, which then can be applied to the report's bands and controls.

6. In this window, create a new formatting rule (click ), locate its Condition property and click the ellipsis.

   

7. In the displayed Condition Editor, define the required Boolean condition. In this example, the condition defined is that if the UnitPrice is greater than 30 the fields will be formatted.

   

8. To save the condition and close the window, click OK.

9. Now, define the formatting to be applied.

   

10. Select the band or control to which the formatting rule must be applied (in this example it is the Detail band), and in the Property Grid, locate the Formatting Rules property and click the ellipsis.

11. In the Formatting Rules Editor that is then displayed, move the formatting rule from the Available Rules list to the Applied Rules list (using the > button) in order to apply the rule to the control.

    

    It is possible to customize the precedence of formatting rules by using the up and down arrow icons at the right of the window. Rules are applied in the order that they appear in the list, with the last rule in the list having the highest priority.