Erik's ToolBox Documentation
Index

RDL Editor - Page Setup & Report Properties

Click empty canvas (or press Esc) — the Properties tab shows everything report- and page-level.

Report

  • Code — the report's VB function block, in a code-style editor. Most BC layouts keep helper functions here (BlankZero and friends); they're called from expressions as =Code.FunctionName(...).
  • Language (=User!Language), Description, Author, Auto Refresh, Consume Container Whitespace.
  • Report-level elements without an editor (Variables, Embedded Images, Parameters, Custom Properties, …) are listed in a preserved as-is note — they survive every save untouched.

Page

  • Page Width / Height and all four margins (these are what's saved in the layout; BC's runtime page setup is separate).
  • Interactive H / W — the pagination size for interactive preview.

The width budget

Right below the page numbers sits the readout that prevents the most common RDLC failure:

Width budget: report 7.45in of 7.5in printable (page − margins).

The rule: report width + left margin + right margin ≤ page width — and prefer a little headroom (7.45in, not 7.5in exactly). If the budget is exceeded, the readout turns into a warning, the affected band shows a red dashed printable boundary line with a warning chip, and the cause is almost always one of: a widened table, a rectangle or line sticking out, or a hidden item off to the right (the canvas guardrails include hidden items).

Bands

Per band (Body / Page Header / Page Footer):

  • Height (bands also auto-grow when you drop an item below their edge)
  • Report Width (under Body) — the true printable width of the section
  • Background color and Borders
  • Header/footer only: Print on first page / Print on last page — the standard "no header on page 1" setup is one unchecked box

Page headers: two truths worth knowing

  1. A hidden header still reserves its height. Hiding everything inside a 7cm page header leaves a 7cm gap on every page. For a big first-page-only header, put it in the body above the line table ("fake header") and keep the real page header small for the repeated content.
  2. Page bands can't read dataset fields — chapter 4's ReportItems! pattern.

Test Print and page geometry

Paper size and margins only bite in hard-page renderers (PDF, print). The HTML preview can look fine while the PDF inserts blank pages — when you change anything width-related, Test Print and check the PDF page count.