Basic Report Design - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 118

Figure 4-58
Multiple Columns
A report can display list values in multiple columns. Values in a column snake from top to bottom and
then left to right. It's important to note that Reporting Services can only do so much in HTML and that
some multicolumn reports can't be rendered in some (or possibly any) versions of HTML, so your only
option may be to render these reports in PDF format.
Columns are defined for the body of a report. When the Columns property for the body is set to a value
greater than 1, the report page width should be set according to the following equation:
Report Page Width >= (Body Width x number of columns) + (ColumnSpacing x (number of
columns - 1))
For example, a report, that has a body width of 2.5 inches with three columns and the column spacing
set to 0.25 inches will yield a report width of 8 inches. If the report's left and right margins were set to
0.25 inches each, this should fit neatly into an 8.5-inch page width.
The layout window shown in Figure 4-59 shows a report designed with these dimensions and property
settings.
Figure 4-59
This report is very simple and contains no headers or footers. You can add them to this report, but the
options are limited. You are limited to the width of the report body and the header will only show above
the first column. In order to use a report header wider than 2.5 inches in this example, you have to create
another report and use the multicolumn report as an embedded subreport. You learn more about creat-
ing subreports in Chapter 6. Keep in mind that some rendering formats (such as HTML) have difficulty