Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 17-20.
Accessing the Placeholder Properties option
In the early versions of SSRS, that was the end of it. In 2008 Microsoft got a wee bit fancier by putting an extra
layer over the top the textbox called a
placeholder
. Placeholders are particularly helpful when displaying dynamic
content, such as today's date. This placeholder acts like a label that is displayed to an SSRS developer as they
design or modify a report. It is not visible to the end user.
Another benefit of a placeholder is that if one developer creates a report and another developer continues
working on it later, the new developer will not have to right-click each textbox to find out what each textbox
expression is supposed to do. (This also works if the first developer is rather forgetful.) In either case, the new
developer (and the forgetful developer) can just look at the placeholder text. To access the placeholder, highlight
the text within the textbox (not the textbox itself ) and right-click it to bring up the context menu (Figure
17-20
).
The context menu contains a Placeholder Properties option.
■
if you highlight the textbox rather than the text
within
the textbox, the Placeholder Properties option
will not appear in the context menu.
Important
Once you have clicked the Placeholder Properties menu option, a corresponding dialog window appears
(Figure
17-21
). Here you can type in whatever label you would like to appear to other developers. For example,
we commonly use Ex: to indicate that the text is an example of what the end users are supposed to see, followed
by some example text.
