Rich Text

The Rich Text control enables users to display, enter, and manipulate formatted text.

The control has functionality similar to the Label control, but formatting can be applied to any part of the text. The formatting options include font face, font styles and sizes, and font colour.

Rich text files (RTF) can be loaded to this control via its Smart Tag.

In the Property Grid, the Rich Text 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 the control.

• 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.

Behavior

• 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.

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

• Can Grow

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

• Can Shrink

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

• 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, this property specifies whether this control should be split between the current page and the next, or whether it will be printed entirely on the next page. If a control does not fit on the next page either, then the control will be split despite this property's setting.

• 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 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's data source. They 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

  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.

Data

• (Data Bindings)

  If the current report is bound to data, this property enables users to bind some of the control's properties (Bookmark, Navigation URL, Rtf and Tag) 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 the control, enabling users to input multiple lines of static text.

• Tag

  This property enabling users 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, use the Lines property. Note that when the control is selected, the 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 Rtf property (instead of Text) can be bound to a data field obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Rtf.Binding dropdown menu, select the required data field. for further information on this, 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 via 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 control. 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://').

  Users can create cross references 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 from the Navigation URL.Binding dropdown list, select the required data field.