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I am developing several dozen reports in SSRS 2008 R2. I am finding the formatting of cells to be the most tedious and error prone part of the task. I know how to individually format each cell.

Is there a way to copy the format of one cell to many other cells?

I would like to avoid doing search and replace in XML, but I am open to it. My dataset queries are parameterized MDX.

Is it possible to format an entire column at once? Or do you always have to format each individual textbox in a column? Is there a way to specify default formatting for each textbox?

Ryan Gates
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gnackenson
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6 Answers6

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Working on the assumption that you're right-clicking each Text Box and using TextBox Properties to edit the formatting options:

If you go to the View menu in BIDS and select Properties Window, you will get access to all properties of each object at once (in my BIDS it displays below the Solution Explorer on the right).

BIDS SSRS Properties Window

Assuming you're talking about a Tablix control within a report here, You can format an entire column simply by clicking the column header and editing the formatting options in the Properties Window.

When it comes to say 4 or 5 cells together but not an entire column/row, you can shift-click to allow you to format multiple cells in one go.

I.e. click Cell 1, hold down shift and then click Cell 4. The Properties Window will then let you edit all the cells in the selected range.

GShenanigan
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  • are there format codes you know of for things like percentage 2 decimal places or for number 0 decimal places use comma separator . – gnackenson May 29 '12 at 16:10
  • Yep, you can use the built in .NET standard or custom formatting strings: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dwhawy9k(VS.95).aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0c899ak8(VS.95).aspx. Just enter the relevant format string into the Format box in the Properties Window. – GShenanigan May 29 '12 at 16:16
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Riffing off of GShenanigan's answer, it depends on what you mean by formatting. If it's things like color, font, etc, then you could define a variable, set it to the value that you want, and then set the value of the property for the cell(s) to the value of that variable. For instance, let's say that you're going to set all of the cells' font to Courier New. You'd define a variable called "Font", set it to "Courier New", and then for each cell that you want to have this font, you'd set it's value using an expression which evaluates that that variable's value. Then, when the requirements change and all of those cells need to be Arial now, you change it in one place (the variable) and all the formatting changes.

Ben Thul
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My solution was to highlight all cells in the table that I wanted to change. Then click View to display the Properties box. Go under the Properties box, in the Number section and change the Format. This worked and reformatted all cells as I wanted.

As a note, I had to paste in the format that I wanted from one of the cells that I had already changed.

Aaron Lelevier
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Steps: 1. Format one textbox with your desired format 2. Select that cell and check its property window and in "Format" area you will see some code 3. copy that and select other textboxes you want to format with same format. 4. paste the copied value in format area of these newly selected textboxes. 5. Finished.

Mohammed Adnan
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Highlight cells you want to change and set the font using the Report Formatting toolbar. This worked for me after not being allowed to type in the Properties side pane and having the Properties option disabled on the context menu.

Daniel Cotter
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You can format a column or a row depending on what conditions you will require for the formatting.

Let's look at the different scenarios (assuming you are using Visual Studio /BIDS:

  • If all your columns or rows use similar conditions for formatting you can select the entire row or column => go to properties window => write an expression for the formatting
  • If a portion of your columns require use similar conditions for formatting, you can pick those columns by using the control key and clicking on these columns and apply the formatting as explained above
  • If each cell's formatting is based on individual conditions (e.g., you evaluate the data from that cell to format that cell), you either format particular cells or write an external script code
Benjamin W.
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Hiruy
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