This toolbar is registered in the Visual Studio IDE by the XtraReports installation, and contains buttons for changing the font properties of the currently selected control, or of the currently selected text in the In-Place Editor (9). In addition, it provides the capability to zoom in or out of the Designer surface.

Note that it's possible to add any other buttons to the toolbox, in the same way you do with other IDE toolbars.

When the Report Designer is activated, it adds the DX.11.2: Report Controls tab to the Visual Studio toolbox. This tab contains items for adding standard report controls to a report, by dragging and dropping them onto report bands.

Note that for the XRTable control, it is possible to drag and drop it across several bands at once.

Provides easy navigation through report elements. You can use it when building a report, to quickly access all report elements and their properties, and to see the whole report's structure.

This panel is added to the IDE when the XtraReports suite is installed. Note that after this window is closed, you can re-open it via the XtraReports Menu.

Displays the schema of the data source which is currently bound to a report. Also, this window may be used to bind existing report controls to data, or to create new bound report controls. To do this, simply click the desired field item in the Field List, and then drag and drop it onto the report band, or a bindable report control.

This panel is added to the IDE when the XtraReports suite is installed. Note that after this window is closed, you can re-open it via the XtraReports Menu.

The smart tag feature enables a report and its elements (bands and controls) to display their context-sensitive information and commands. The smart tag can be thought of as a replacement for designer verbs, because you can choose to display a smart tag item in both the smart tag panel and in the shortcut menu associated with a report control or band.

For more information, refer to the corresponding help topic.

Two report rulers (horizontal and vertical) are always visible in the Designer, and display tickmarks in the measure unitsspecified for your report. So, rulers show the size and location of currently selected report bands and controls.

In addition, the horizontal ruler allows you to quickly change report side margins (XtraReport.Margins), by moving the left and right sliders on the ruler. Additionally, the vertical ruler shows resizing rectangles for every Band Strip (7), which can be moved to change the height of a band.

Each report band has a colored strip at the top, that contains an expand/collapse button, an icon corresponding to the band type, the band name, and (when the strip is clicked), the band's Smart Tag (5). To change the height of a band without usingRulers (6), drag and drop the top border of the band strip.

Note that Band Strips are not displayed in the final report document - they are only shown for informational purposes in the Designer.

And, the expand/collapse button is an arrow shown on the left side of every Strip, to expand or collapse the corresponding band with all objects inside it. This is useful, for example, when a band that occupies too much screen space should be minimized. This option doesn't affect a report's final output in Print Preview, and is only required for convenience at design time.

This context-sensitive menu is displayed when right-clicking any report element, and provides quick access to its most popular options. For example, it allows you to easily perform different Designer actions (Bring To Front, Send To Back, Align To Grid), insert new bands, add or remove report controls and see their properties.

This design-time editor is invoked when double-clicking any text-aware report control (XRLabel, XRTableCell, XRRichText,XRCheckBox or XRZipCode). It provides the capability of a control's in-place text editing, more easily than locating and specifying its Text property in the Properties window.

Note also that in the in-place mode, you are able to use the default buttons of the XtraReports Toolbar (1) and set different font and color options for the currently selected text.

This area displays all components (mostly data objects), which are added to the report. You can select any component in the tray to edit its properties via the Properties window, or right-click a component and choose one of the options in its context menu.

These are four buttons on the bottom of the Report Designer (Designer, Scripts, Preview and HTML View), which allow you to quickly switch between different views at design time. This may be extremely useful when a report is fully customized at design time, and it's required to populate its data source and check its Print or HTML output.

Note that if a report is also customized at runtime (e.g. via handling some of its events), this code has no effect on the design-time preview.

The Scripts tab provides centralized access to all report scripts, making their maintenance easier. For more information, refer to Scripting Overview.

Displays the current zoom factor value. To change the zoom factor at design time, use the corresponding buttons of theXtraReports Toolbar (1).

Provides centralized management of a report's grouping and sorting hierarchy, making it easier to maintain it within your report.

This panel is added to the IDE when the XtraReports suite is installed. Note that after this window is closed, you can re-open it via the XtraReports Menu.

Provides quick access to the most important actions that can be performed with the currently selected control. They are displayed in a Smart Tag (5) of this control, or at the bottom of the Properties window.

Allows you to monitor whether all report scripts are valid.

This panel is added to the IDE when the XtraReports suite is installed. Note that after this window is closed, you can re-open it via the XtraReports Menu.