SSRS show field names in textbox expressions

Question

I have a simple SSRS report that uses one dataset. However, the report layout is not and cannot be in a table format. Since I don't have a table, all my textbox expressions are lookups instead of just the field name. How can I set up the report so the dataset field names show in the textbox without having a table?

I've tried: Looking for a report-wide dataset property. No luck. Creating a table with one row/column the size of the report to paste everything into. No luck.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Answer 1

I'm not sure why this is so important as it's only seen in the designer but I guess it is to you....

The only way I know of getting close to this is to use a table and then either

Add rows and columns to support your layout, set individual cells to whatever fields you want.

or

Use a table bound to your dataset with just a single cell (or a few more if it makes the layout easier) and then insert placeholders into the cell(s), you can mix text in with these too.

Here's an example in design mode using just one textbox

To add the placeholders, right click on the cell and then "create placeholder", then right-click the placeholder and select the field from the drop down list under 'value'.

Note: You can't place these freely within the cell, they are inserted into or appended to text strings so you might have to pad the spacing out with blanks. I would suggest using a monospaced for for this to ensure consistency.

As you can see the placeholder for account number has been formatted as has the word 'text' so you still have quite a lot of control.

When the report runs (with just 1 record) we get this