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3 min read

SSRS report tips to adjust alignment for pre-formatted print stock (i.e. 1099-MISC form)

The purpose of this article is to help answer a common question we receive regarding print alignment when printing to pre-formatted print stock like a 1099-MISC tax form.  The 1099-MISC tax form will be the focus of this particular blog but the instructions can be applied to most any SSRS report generated through Dynamics AX 2012. 

We will be formatting SSRS report output to align to the 1099-MISC form below. This 1099-MISC form is commonly available through several office supply outlets.

While we strive to accurately render the results of this report to align to the form, there are variables that come into play that may cause the alignment to drift when rendered through your print environment.  This is generally caused by variations in printer hardware, software, drivers, and print stock between batches and manufacturers.  To overcome this, you may need to manually adjust the report to render correctly within your particular printing environment. 

1. Open Visual Studio

2. Navigate to View > Application explorer to open the Application Explorer (pane)

3. In the Application Explorer (pane), Navigate to SSRS > Reports > Tax1099Report

4. Right-click on Tax1099Report and select the Edit option to open the Tax1099Report

6. Navigate to the Tax1099Report > Designs > Tax1099MISC

7. Right click on Tax1099MISC and select the Edit Using Designer option

8. Note in the Properties (pane), the selected object is Report.  These are the properties for the overall report layout.

9. Select the text box “[CompanyName]’.

10. Note the Properties (pane) focus changed to the selected text object which in this case is Textbox2.  These are the properties that are specific to Textbox2. The next two screen shots are meant to show the fill list of properties for this particular object

11. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will only be concerned with the following properties.
          a. Position > Location > Left
          b. Position > Location > Top
          c. Position > Size > Width
          d. Position > Size > Height

12. to make changes to the location, you can either use the arrow keys on the keyboard or make manual changes in the Left and Top (fields)
          a. Arrow key = full nudge
          b. Ctrl + Arrow key = micro nudge

13. to make changes to the size, you can either use the Shift + arrow key or make manual changes in the Width and Height (fields)
          a. Shift + Up arrow key =  full vertical shrink
          b. Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow key = micro vertical shrink
          c. Shift + Down arrow key =  full vertical grow
          d. Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow key = micro vertical grow
          e. Shift + Left arrow key =  full horizontal shrink
          f. Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow key = micro horizontal shrink
          g. Shift + Right arrow key =  full horizontal grow
          h. Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow key = micro horizontal grow

14. Once you are happy with your layout changes, click Ctrl + S to save the changes you have made to the report

15. Navigate to View > Solution explorer to open the Solution Explorer (pane) 

16. In the Solution Explorer (pane), right click on ReportModel1 and select the Deploy option to deploy the updated report to your report server.

17. Wait for the output to complete the deployment process.  when complete you should see the message “Deploy 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped”

18. Here is what our Tax1099MISC report looked like before making adjustments.

19. Here is how our Tax1099MISC report looks after making adjustments.

John Bengson [MSFT]