Tour of the Report Builder User Interface

Lesson 1.4: Tour of the Report Builder User Interface

In this lesson, you'll get familiar with the main components of the Microsoft Report Builder interface to efficiently design your reports.

Ribbon: The top toolbar containing tabs like Home, Insert, Page Layout, Run, and View, with buttons to manage report design and execution.
Design Surface: The central canvas where you visually design your report layout by adding tables, charts, text boxes, and other items.
Report Data Pane: Located usually on the left side, this pane lets you manage data sources, datasets, parameters, and images used in the report.
Grouping and Sorting Pane: Helps organize data within tables or lists by defining groupings and sorting rules.
Properties Pane: Displays properties of the selected report item for customization, such as fonts, colors, and layout settings.
Preview Tab: Allows you to run and preview the report output with actual data.

Home: Basic clipboard actions, font styles, alignment, and inserting common items.
Insert: Add report elements like tables, matrices, charts, images, text boxes, and rectangles.
Page Layout: Set page size, margins, and add headers or footers.
Run: Preview the report in different rendering formats.
View: Show or hide panes like Report Data and Properties.

Use keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+Z to undo) to speed up your workflow.
Dock and resize panes to fit your preferred workspace layout.
Right-click items on the design surface for context menus with quick actions.

The Report Builder interface is designed to be intuitive, with a ribbon toolbar and panes for data and properties management.
Familiarity with the UI components helps speed up report creation and customization.
Previewing frequently allows you to validate report design and data correctness.

Lesson 2: Getting Started with Reports – Creating a New Report