Report Results Spread Out In Report Manager View

I have one report that displays the result spread out when viewed in Report
Manager. The report has several fields that are arranged on the same line. I
have many others reports with the same basic format that view as expected.
If the problem report is exported, the result is formatted correctly. The
problem seems to be only on the View tab.
Any ideas on what is causing this?On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:09:10 -0800, "TomS"
<TomS@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>I have one report that displays the result spread out when viewed in Report
>Manager. The report has several fields that are arranged on the same line. I
>have many others reports with the same basic format that view as expected.
>If the problem report is exported, the result is formatted correctly. The
>problem seems to be only on the View tab.
>Any ideas on what is causing this?
The view/preview mode is essentially an HTML rendering of your report.
When you use multiple textboxes, labels and such and try to position
them exactly, they get converted to HTML <DIV> and <SPAN> elements.
This model is quite flawed, that's why your positioning doesn't work
as expected.
A a general rule of thumb, you may consider the following:
1) Always tailor your reports towards a single format (Adobe Acrobat
PDF works the best, especially if your reports must be printed at some
point) Most likely, you'll never get the same results in different
formats, so don't worry about the others.
2) Avoid using textboxes and labels at all costs, especially if they
have to be close to each other, otherwise you'll always get formatting
surprises here and there. Use tables instead, whenever possible: no
unexpected results with formatting, plus they are much more effective
when it comes to HTML rendering (no more <DIV>s and such).