Creating Newsletter-Style Reports (Report Builder 2.0)

You can design multi-column newsletter-style reports whereby data flows down multiple adjacent columns. A newsletter-style layout applies to the entire report. It is not possible to specify a newsletter-style layout on the top half of the report, and a tabular layout on the bottom half of the report. When you specify a newsletter-style layout, the report server creates each column as a series of very narrow pages that are rendered in close sequence, giving the appearance of multiple columns. Properties that you set at the page level are applied to each column in the report. You can define as many columns you want.

For best results, use the Table or List data region. If you embed a subreport in a newsletter-style report, be aware that the subreport inherits the column settings of the parent report. You cannot define a newsletter-style layout for a subreport.

For more information, see How to: Create a Newsletter-Style Report (Report Builder 2.0).

Viewing a Newsletter-Style Report

Not all rendering extensions support a newsletter-style layout. You can use the following rendering extensions to view a newsletter-style report:

  • PDF

  • Image

You can preview a newsletter-style report using Print Preview. In Preview and in the rendering extensions that produce HTML, MHTML, Excel, Word, CSV, and XML output, a newsletter-style layout is displayed as a single column.

To view a newsletter-style report, you must export it to a PDF or IMAGE file, and then open the file from the file system. Because the newsletter-style report layout is not supported in HTML, you might want to avoid running the report from Report Manager or in SharePoint Web parts that use HTML as the default output format. For best results, consider the following alternative deployment options:

  • Create a subscription that delivers the report as a .pdf or .tiff file to a shared folder location. For more information, see "File Share Delivery in Reporting Services " in the Reporting Services documentation in SQL Server Books Online.

  • Use URL access to deploy the report. You can specify the PDF or IMAGE rendering extension on the report URL so that the report always opens in an output format that supports newsletter-style layouts. For more information, see "URL Access" in the Reporting Services documentation in SQL Server Books Online.