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Multi-Column Report

A Multi-Column Report is a report which represents its data in multiple columns or rows (depending upon the current multi-column settings). This may be useful, for instance, when every Detail band shows only a small amount of data, and it is necessary to print the next appearance of the Detail band in a column right to it, so as to occupy the entire page width. Also, this approach may be useful when creating cards or mailing labels with the same content, and it is necessary to print a lot of cards of the same size on many report pages.

The multi-column mode can be specified via the DetailBand.MultiColumn property. To enable the multi-column mode, set the MultiColumn.Mode property to a value other than None.

When the multi-column mode is enabled, Detail bands can be repeated in one of two ways: down and then across (in columns), or across and then down (in rows). This option is specified via the MultiColumn.Direction property.

You have two options to define the multi-column layout:

• Column number is fixed, column width is the same and calculated automatically.
  For this, the MultiColumn.Mode property should be set to MultiColumnMode.UseColumnCount, and the MultiColumn.ColumnCount property should be set to the required number of columns.
• Column number is calculated automatically, column width is the same fixed width for all columns.
  For this, the MultiColumn.Mode property should be set to MultiColumnMode.UseColumnWidth, and the MultiColumn.ColumnWidth property should be set to the required column width.

The resulting multi-column layout also depends upon the MultiColumn.ColumnSpacing property's value. This value specifies the space between the columns, and is useful when it's necessary to adjust the layout of columns at design time, as shown in the image below.

So, the MultiColumn.ColumnSpacing property is auxiliary, and serves only to illustrate the space between columns at design time. If you place some controls in the area specified by the MultiColumn.ColumnSpacing property, then these controls will be printed in the standard way, as though they were placed in the area specified by the MultiColumn.ColumnWidth property.

When creating a multi-column report in an unbound mode (for instance, to print a fixed amount of labels or cards in a report), use the ReportPrintOptions.DetailCount property, to specify how many times each row should be repeated.

See also