A style collection is a group of styles that have the same value in the Collection Name property. Each collection must contain at least one style. For instance, if multiple styles are used in a report, they can be combined into a collection. It's important to note that a report can have multiple style collections.
 

You can create a style collection in the following ways:

Manually, by assigning the same value to the Collection Name property of the required styles.

By selecting the Create Style Collection... command from the Actions menu, defining the settings for the new collection, and clicking the Ok button. In this case, the collection will be generated automatically.

 

It's worth noting that a report can contain both manually created style collections and automatically generated ones. Additionally, if needed, the styles within a generated collection can be edited along with the collection itself.

 

You can apply styles from collections in the following ways:

Manually assign a style to each report or report component. You can select from the drop-down menu of quick style selections or from the drop-down list of values for the Style property.

Select the style collection from the quick style select menu on the Home tab of the Ribbon panel in the style designer.
 

 

 

It's also important to note that only one style collection can be applied to report components at a time. However, in some cases, you can manually assign a different style to specific report components while applying a collection of styles to the rest of the report. Let's take a look at some examples of creating style collections.

 

 

Creating a Style Collection Manually

Creating a style collection manually involves filling in the Collection Name property or dragging a style into the collection.
 

Step 1: Launch the style designer.

Step 2: Create styles or open a previously saved style file.

Step 3: To create a style collection, fill in the Collection Name property for the required styles. The name of the future collection is specified as the value of this property. Each unique value specified in this property creates a new collection. For example, if you specify the name Black for five styles, then the Black collection will be formed in the list of elements of the style designer, containing these five styles.

 

When working with style collections, keep in mind:

When dragging a style from one collection to another, the value of the Collection Name property will change accordingly.

If you rename a style collection, all styles within that collection will have their Collection Name property value changed as well.

To remove a style from any collection, delete the value of the Collection Name property by leaving the value field of this property blank.

 

Step 4: Set up style conditions. Without conditions, when applying a collection of styles to a report, the styles will be applied sequentially from top to bottom. As a result, the last style from the collection will be applied to the report. However, you can also change the style of a report component by selecting it in the report template and choosing the appropriate style from the style menu on the Home tab of the report designer.

Step 5: Define the style's appearance options, such as brush, color, border, alignment, etc.

Step 6: Click the Ok button in the style designer to save the new style or the modifications to the existing one.

 

 

Creating a generated style collection

Creating a generated style collection involves creating a collection of styles automatically.

 

Step 1: Run the style designer.

Step 2: Select the New Style Collection... command from the Actions menu of the style designer;

Step 3: Define the parameters of the future style collection:

 

 

 

The Collection Name field specifies the name of the collection.

The Color parameter is used to select the primary color for the style collection.

The Nested Level is used to select a value corresponding to the nesting level in the report. More details will be discussed below.

The Nested Factor parameter is used to define a nesting factor that affects the lightness of colors in a given style collection.

An option is used to enable or disable Borders for the styles in the collection.

The Remove Existing Styles option. If this option is enabled, then when creating a collection, existing styles and collections in the style designer will be deleted. If this option is disabled (the checkbox is unchecked), then the new style collection will be added to the already existing styles and collections.

The Components panel. Report bands are marked on this panel. If a certain band is checked, then a style will be created that will be applied to the report components located on this band. If no band is checked, then the style collection will not be created.

The Preview panel. This panel displays an example of a report with the styles collection being created applied to it.

 
Step 4: Click the Ok button in the Create Style Collection dialog.

Step 5: Edit the styles from the collection and click the Ok button in the style designer.

 

 

Applying a style collection to a report

After the style collections are created, you can select one of these collections in the report.

To do this, click on the style quick selection menu in the report designer on the Home tab.

The drop-down list will display all collections of reports and a list of styles.

After selecting a collection, a message will be displayed asking you to confirm or cancel this action.

 

If confirmed, the styles from the collection will be applied to the report components depending on the specified conditions in these styles.