Large number of reports

Hi

I have a large number of reports that are very similar in structure (only some query and report heading changes).

Creation of these is simple by creating a template or modifying the project file and saving as a new project. But whenever there is some change to be made (format or query change), it has to be made individually in all of the reports, which makes it very time consuming and error prone.

Can anyone give some suggestions as to how to automate this process, or some other way to improve maintainability in this situation.

Thanks

Shomik

Unfortunately RS does not support CSS which would be ideal. One solution is to make certain formatting options data driven. Seeing as most properties are expression based, you could have a styles table and have the report query the styles at runtime and set colours and fonts based on fields from a dataset. Any change would effect all supporting reports.|||

I have made the formatting options and even the static messages shown, database driven wherever possible. But still cannot do it everywhere, because of which even a position change of a textbox has to be made in all of the reports manually.

I tried using a template, but that is ok for creating the new report. I again have the same problem when it comes to maintenance.

Can anyone suggest any changes to the way I am doing this or another approach for tackling this issue ?

Thanks,

Shomik