Label

The Label control is used to display textual information in a report. For example, the Label may be used to show static text, as well as data from the bound data source. In addition, it can be used to calculate a summary function for the specified data field, or to extend its usual functionality by writing scripts for the available events.

After a Label is added to a report, its text, appearance and other properties can be customized using the Property Grid panel. Frequently used properties are also available via a control's Smart Tag and Formatting Toolbar, which makes it easy to perform common operations.

In the Property Grid, the Label control's properties are divided into the following groups:

Appearance

• Background Color

  Specifies the background colour for the control. This option is also available on the Formatting Toolbar.

  

• Borders, Border Color and Border Width

  Specifies border settings for the control.

• Font

  Specifies the font settings for the control. Some of these settings are available on the Formatting Toolbar.

• Foreground Color

  Specifies the text colour for the control. This option is also available on the Formatting Toolbar ().

• Formatting Rules

  Displays the Formatting Rules Editor, used to choose which rules should be applied to the control during report generation, and define the precedence of the applied rules. for further information, refer to Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance.

• Padding

  Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of a Label.

• Style Priority

  Used to define the priority of various style elements (such as background colour, border colour, ). for further information on style inheritance, refer to Styles Concepts.

• Styles

  This property is used to define odd and even styles for the control, as well as to assign an existing style to the control (or a newly created one). for further information on style inheritance, refer to Styles Concepts.

• Text Alignment

  Used to change the alignment of the control's text. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar.

Behavior

• Anchor Vertically

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

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

• Angle

  Specifies the rotation angle of the text. The measurement unit is a degree, and the orientation is counterclockwise. Since standard HTML does not support text orientation, this parameter is ignored when a report is displayed within a web page.

• Can Grow

  When this property is set to Yes, a Label's height can be automatically increased, if required, to fit the text. If there are other controls below the current Label, they will be pushed down to prevent them from overlapping. Note that if a control overlaps the grown Label by even one pixel, it will not be pushed down by the expanded Label.

• Can Shrink

  When this property is set to Yes, and the text does not completely fill a Label, then the Label's height will be decreased to the height of its text. If there are other controls below the current Label, they will be moved up to fill the gap. Note that if a control overlaps a shrunk Label by even one pixel, it will not be pushed up by the shrinking Label.

• Keep Together

  Specifies whether the contents of a Label can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if a Label occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether this Label should be split between the current page and the next, or whether it will be printed entirely on the next page. If a label will not fit on the next page either, then the Label will be split, regardless of this property's value.

• Multiline

  When this property is set to Yes, a Label processes newline characters found in the text to start a new line. For example, when editing a Label’s text, a new line can be inserted by pressing ENTER, and in this case, the Multiline property will be automatically set to Yes.

• Process Duplicates

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

• Scripts

  This property contains events, which can be handled with the scripts. for further information on scripting, refer to Handle Events via Scripts.

• Visible

  Specifies whether the control should be visible when the report is previewed.

• Word Wrap

  When this property is set to Yes, text entered into the multiline Label is wrapped to the next line if it does not fit the line or is interrupted by a newline character. If the property is set to No, text entered into the multiline Label will be displayed on the same line except where forced on a new line by a newline character.

Data

• (Data Bindings)

  If the current report is bound to data, this property is used to bind some of the control's properties (Bookmark, Navigation URL, Tag and Text) to a data field obtained from the report's data source, and to apply a format string to it. for further information, refer to Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Elements to Data).

• Lines

  Provides access to the Text property of a Label in the Multiline mode.

• Summary

  Used to perform calculations (summary, max, min, average, ) over a data field. for further information on calculating summaries, refer to Add Totals to a Report.

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

• Tag

  This property is used to add additional information to the control; for example its Id, by which it can then be accessed by 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 dropdown list, select the required data field.

• Text

  Used to define a line of static text to be displayed. To type several lines of text, click the control's Smart Tag, and in the displayed actions list, click Edit Text, or use the Lines property.

  Note: When a Label is selected in the designer, a user may start typing the text, and it will be automatically entered into the in-place editor.

  

  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 dropdown list, select the required data field. For further information, refer to Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Elements to Data).

Design

• (Name)

  Determines a control's name, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Property Grid or by scripts.

Layout

• Location

  Specifies the control's location, in report measurement units.

• Size

  Specifies the control's size, in report measurement units.

Navigation

• Bookmark and Parent Bookmark

  These properties are used to create a hierarchical structure within a report called a document map. for further information, refer to Add Bookmarks.

  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 Bindings) property, and from the Bookmark.Binding dropdown list, select the required data field.

• Navigation URL and Navigation Target

  Use the Navigation URL property to specify a URL for web browser navigation when a user clicks the Label. The web browser displays a page in a window or a frame as specified by the Navigation Target property.

  Note: A URL should 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'. for further information, refer to Create Hyperlinks.

  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 Bindings) property, and in the Navigation URL.Binding dropdown selector, select the required data field.