Property: Label - Visible

The purpose of this property is to show the values of data points in the series on a chart.

To access the property, go to the chart series properties, expand Label, and go to Visible.

Example: I have a chart that shows sales by year, with a series for each product category.

Because there are few data points on the chart, I want each value to show a label of the exact value.

I go to the Design tab, select the series on the chart, expand Label, and set Visible to True.

I want this to look more readable. I set Font Size to 8, Format to “c” (currency), and Position to Top.

The chart is much more readable now.

Further Reading:

Position Labels in a Chart (Report Builder and SSRS)

Property: Tooltip

The purpose of this property is to show a specific value on a series in a chart when the user hovers over the data point.

To access the property, select a chart series and go to Tooltip.

Example: I have a line chart that shows sales by category by year. I want the user to be able to see the exact value as a tooltip.

I go to the Design tab, click on the series to select it, and choose Tooltip and add my expression. I am summing the value, and formatting it as currency.

When I run the report and hover over a point, the value of that point shows in a yellow tooltip box.

Further Reading:

Show ToolTips on a Series (Report Builder and SSRS)

Property: Minimum, Maximum, and Interval

The purpose of these properties is to define the minimum and maximum values on a chart axis, and the intervals shown.

To access the properties, select a chart axis and select Minimum, Maximum, or Interval.

By default, all three are set to Auto. You can set them to any valid range.

Example: I have a line chart that shows sales by product category per year. The default Auto settings show from $0 to $20,000,000.

I want to show a range of values from $5,000,000 to $17,500,000, and display an interval of $2,500,000. I set Minimum to 5,000,000, Maximum to 17,500,000, and Interval to 2,500,000.

When I run the report, the intervals on the vertical axis have been adjusted.

Further Reading:

Formatting Axis Labels on a Chart (Report Builder and SSRS)

Specify an Axis Interval (Report Builder and SSRS)

Property: Source

The purpose of this property is to specify where a report image is stored.

To access the property, select an image and go to Source. The options are External, Embedded, and Database.

Options:

• External – an image stored on a server. Specify a URL or path.
• Embedded – an image uploaded to and embedded in the report RDL.
• Database – an image stored in a database table.

Example: I want to include the company logo in the header of a sales report.

I add a report header and drag an image control on to it. I select External as the source. I put the URL to the image in Use this image.

When I run the report, the image is in the header.

If I want to have the image embedded with the report, I need to add it. I go to the Report Data pane and select New > Image.

I navigate to the location the image is saved and select it. The image is now available in the report.

To add the image to the report, I drag an image control into the header. I select the image source as Embedded and use the drop-down arrow to select logo_prod as my image.

When I run the report, the image is in the header.

I want to use the image as it is stored in the database. I drag an image control into the header. I select the image source of Database. I choose the field in the dataset my image is stored in, and specify the image MIME type.

When I run the report, the image is in the header.

Further Reading:

Images (Report Builder and SSRS)

Property: CanGrow and CanShrink

The purpose of these properties is to allow a text box to grow or reduce in size to fit a value.

To access the property, select a text box and go to CanGrow or CanShrink. The options for both are True or False.

CanGrow

True – the text box will grow in size to fit a large value (default).

False – the text box will not grow.

CanShrink

True – the text box will reduce in size to fit a small value.

False – the text box will not reduce (default).

Example: I have an order status report that includes a text box for comments. CanGrow is false, and CanShrink is false.

Showing an order that has no comment, the text box will remain its default size.

I have no order with a short comment. The text box remains the default size.

I set CanShrink to True. The text box reduces in size to fit the shorter comment.

I have another order with a longer comment. I set CanGrow to True. The text box enlarges in size to fix the longer comment.

Further Reading:

Allow a Text Box to Grow or Shrink (Report Builder and SSRS)

Today my guest blogger is my good friend Doug Lane - a fellow blogger, presenter, and runner. If you ever get a chance to watch Doug present, do it! His lightning talk at PASS Summit 2011 on framing had me rolling with laughter.

Today, Doug is talking about InnerPlotPosition.

Property: VerticalAlign

The purpose of this property is to set the vertical text alignment of a text box or tablix cell.

To access the property, go to the text box and select VerticalAlign. The options are Default, Top, Middle, and Bottom.

Options:

Default – top.

Top – text will be placed at the top of the cell and go down.

Middle – text will be centered in the middle of the cell.

Bottom – text will be placed at the bottom of the cell and go up.

Example: I have a product inventory report. I want to display the text in different vertical alignments. By default, the VerticalAlign is set to Top.

I set VerticalAlignfor all text boxes to Middle. The longest lines of text will fill the boxes; other text will be centered vertically.

I set VerticalAlign for all text boxes to Bottom. All boxes line the text up at the bottom.

Today I have a special guest blogger: Stacia Misner, Business Intelligence consultant, trainer, author, and speaker extraordinaire. She is one of the people I learned much from when I started working with SSRS, and it has been a pleasure to get to know her over the past few years.

Today, she is blogging about RepeatWith.

Thanks Stacia!

Property: WritingMode

The purpose of this property is to allow you to display text horizontally or vertically within a text box or tablix cell.

To access the property, select the text box and go to WritingMode. The options are Horizontal, Vertical, and Rotate270.

Modes

Horizontal: Text will be horizontal, read left to right.

Vertical: Text will be vertical, read top to bottom.

Rotate 270: Text will be vertical, read bottom to top.

Example: I have a product inventory report with several headers. By default, the text displays horizontally.

I change the WritingMode of the column headers to Vertical. The text is read from top to bottom, starting in the top right corner of the cell.

I change the WritingMode of the column headers to Rotate270. The text is read from bottom to top, starting in the lower left corner of the cell.

Further Reading:

Set Text Box Orientation (Report Builder and SSRS)

Property: Document Map

The purpose of this property is to allow you to create a clickable list of values in a pane on the left side of the screen that a user can click on to quickly reach that value in the report.

To access the property, select the table or matrix and go to DocumentMapLabel. The options are a field in the dataset, or an expression.

To set it for a group, select the group in the group pane, go to Group Properties, and select Advanced.

Example: I have a report that displays products by subcategory.

To make it easier to navigate, I want create a Document Map. I go to the Row Groups pane, select the group, and select Group Properties.

I go to Advanced and set the Document Map to SubcategoryName.

The report now has a list of subcategories in a pane on the left.

Selecting a value, such as Jerseys, will automatically take you to the position of that value in the report.

Further Reading:

Create a Document Map (Report Builder and SSRS)