Report - Text Shape

The Text shape component creates a text area for static or data key bound content. It is used for report titles, customized page headers and footers, and of course, any additional text you want to add to a report. Select the Text Shape on the Report Component Palette to make it active, draw a rectangle in your Report Designer, and begin entering text. After it is created, you can move the Text component around, expand it, or shrink it by using the handles when the component is selected. The Text Shape component has two tabs; the Edit Text and Properties tabs.

The Edit Text tab has a set of functions on the right side of the tab to quickly edit the text, like changing the font type, size, style, and color. These same properties may also be modified from the Properties tab. Properties that are modified will usually affect all text in that object regardless of specific text selection. The Properties tab has a lot of properties associated with Text Shape component, including Data Key Format Properties for Date and Number formats by simply choosing a format from the list of available templates.

Report Designb Component Icon

Properties

Property Inspector - Edit Text Tab

Property	Description
	Insert data key
	Select font and size
	Bold
	Italic
	Underline
	Superscript
	Subscript
	Choose font color

Property Inspector - Properties Tab

Property	Description
Text	Text to display in the shape.
Text Color	Color of the text.
Character Spacing	Amount of extra spacing to add between characters. Negative spacing makes characters closer together.
Coalesce Newlines	If true, consecutive line breaks will be merged into one.
Font	Font to use for the text.
Horizontal Alignment	Horizontal alignment for text.
Line Spacing	Spacing between lines of text. 1 is single spacing, 2 is double spacing, etc.
Margin	Margin between text and bounds of shape in pixels. Format is top; left; bottom; right.
Overflow Behavior	How text that overflows the bounds of the shape should be handled. Paginate - text is pushed to the next page if the number of characters exceed the shape. Shrink text to fit - text fits into the shape when expanded, and the font is smaller when previewed or printed. Grow row - text fits into the shape and shows when the shape is expanded, previewed, or printed. Changed in 8.1.19 The Grow row option has been removed, and the default value is now None.
Underlined	If true, use underlined text.
Vertical Alignment	Vertical alignment for text.
Date Format	Format to use for dates in this shape.
Null Format	Format to use for null values in this shape.
Number Format	Format to use for numbers in this shape.
Negative in Red	If true, show negative numbers in red.
Fill	If true, the shape will fill its space with color.
Fill Color	If Fill is selected, the color that will fill the shape.
Opacity	How opaque the Fill color is, between 0 and 1.
Stroke Style	What style of stroke or border to use: Hidden; Shape Outline; Border; Double. To learn more about stroke styles, refer to Stroke and Fill Properties.
Stroke	Details for the chosen stroke. Each Stroke has its own properties depending on the Stroke Style chosen.
Radius	Amount to radius the corners of this shape if using a Stroke.
Roll	Number of degrees this shape is rotated clockwise.
Scale X	Amount to scale the width of this shape. 1 is scale to 100%.
Scale Y	Amount to scale the height of this shape. 1 is scale to 100%.
URL	New in 8.1.19 A link to attach to this reporting component. Will be a clickable hyperlink if the report is exported as a PDF. You can use the values below to link to internal pages. Page:Next - Navigates to the next page. Page:Back - Navigates to the previous page. Page:Number - Replace "Number" with a numeral. Navigates to the specified page.
Visible	If true, the shape will be visible.
Width	Width of this shape in pixels.
Height	Height of this shape in pixels.
X	Horizontal distance in pixels between the left edge of this shape and the left edge of the page.
Y	Vertical distance in pixels between the upper edge of this shape and the top edge of the page.

Using HTML in the Edit Text Tab

Text Shapes can render HTML tags, but only if the value of the Text property is referencing a report parameter that contains HTML. For example, if a parameter contained the following value, then you can assign an html parameter to the Text property of a Text shape.

"<html>some <br>text</html>"

Then, in the Edit Text tab on the Text shape, enter @html@.

Access the Preview tab to see how the key renders.

Supported Tags

Below is a listing of all tags. You don't need to include the closing formatting tag if the rest of the string should use the formatting.

Formatting Option	Tag	Example
Line Break	<br>	<html>Hello <br>World</html>
Bold	<b>	<html>Hello <b>World</b></html>
Italic	<i>	<html>Hello <i>World</i></html>
Emphasis	<em> Displayed as italics.	<html>Hello <em>World</em></html>
Underline	<u>	<html>Hello <u>World</u></html>
Font Size	<font size='x'> The possible values for x and related size modifier are listed below.	<html>Hello <font size=2>World</font size></html>
Font Color	<font color='x'> Where x is a named color, such as 'red' or a hex code ('#0000FF')	<html>Hello <font color='red'>World</font color></html> <html>Hello <font color='#0000FF'>World</font color></html>
Superscript	<sup>	<html>Hello <sup>World</sup></html>
Subscript	<sub>	<html>Hello <sub>World</sup></html>
Alignment	<left>, <center>, <right>	<html>Hello <center>World</center></html>

Font Size

Value	Size Modifier
1	.5
2	.75
3	1.0
4	1.2
5	1.4
6	1.6
7	2.0

Example

This example shows the property values used to create a heading for the Used Car Inventory report below.

Used Car Inventory Settings

Property	Value
Text	Used Car Inventory
Text Color	FFFFFF, Bold
Font Size	24 pixels

April 2020 settings

Property	Value
Text	April 2020
Text Color	FFFFFF
Font Size	18 pixels