Page setup and print layout in SSRS Report

Question

I'm creating a SSRS report using BID 2008 and have a couple of questions:

1. Why is the page layout on the report different from print set up? For example I have set the page layout of the report in design mode to Landscape but when it is printed, it is portrait and the report is broken in many pages, the way that the table columns are broken makes the report not usable. How can we ensure what we see on the screen is the same as what will be printed (aligned with what was designed)? I've spent a considerable amount of time to do that, but have not had much success :(

2. My report length is relatively long, consisting of 3 pages (in design mode). I want to have multiple layouts in the report. For example page 1, 2 and 3 landscape and page 4 portrait. There is no sub report in the report. How can this be achieved?

Answer 1

The page setup in the print options does not control your report parameters. You will need to use the Height/Width property of the report inside BIDS. Orientation in SSRS is controlled by setting these values. We have a report at our office that is similar to what you describe and there are two ways of (semi) achieving what you want to get done.

The first is to use a separate report for each page that you want. This gives you complete control over all elements of each page such as height/width etc but may be more work for you to do and possibly more maintenance in the long run. It does however mean that should you change elements of the report later you only have to retest the bits you have changed, not the entire report.

The second one is to you expressions to force page breaks. This will work for reports that need the same orientation (as they inherit the properties set on the report container) but will not work for a report that has a different orientation. A link to an example of page breaks is below:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms157328.aspx#AppearanceofReportData

I hope this makes sense and that it helps you in what you want to achieve.