The Rectangle report item is a container for other items. There are a variety of ways in which you can use it to enhance your reports.
Drawing a Box
You can set the BorderStyle, BorderColor, and BorderWidth properties of the Rectangle to create purely visual effects within your report.
Grouping Items
You can place report items within the Rectangle to group them visually, and to make it easier at design time to move a group of report items.
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Note: Drawing a rectangle around existing items does not contain them. Instead you must drag the items into the rectangle. |
Displaying an Image Behind Items
You can display an image behind a group of report items by setting the BackgroundImage property of the Rectangle.
Anchoring Items
Probably the most useful feature of the Rectangle report item is its ability to anchor report items which may otherwise be pushed down by a vertically expanding data region. For example, if you have a group of textboxes to the left or right of a table, and one or more of them is below the table's bottom edge, at run time the lower textboxes are pushed down below the expanded table while the upper textboxes remain where you placed them at design time. To prevent this from happening, place the group of textboxes within a rectangle.