The ActiveReports provides the Windows Forms Viewer application ActiveReports.Viewer.exe, bundled with the ActiveReports installer. The app can be launched by installing the ActiveReports installer package.

You can run the application by selecting the ActiveReports 18 Viewer from the Start menu, or by running the ActiveReports.Viewer.exe from the C:\Program Files (x86)\MESCIUS\ActiveReports 18\Tools\ location.

Report readers wanting to quickly preview a report in WinForms platform can use WinViewer sample. You just need to load the report you want to view in the viewer control. The Windows Forms Viewer with a report loaded looks like the following.

The Windows Forms Viewer is basically a Windows Forms application with an ActiveReports Viewer control in it. The default user interface of this application provides an ActiveReports Viewer control along with a menu bar.

You can open a .rdlx or .rpx report in the standalone viewer application, by going to the File menu > Open menu option and selecting a report to load in the viewer. Unlike the Viewer control, no code implementation is required to load the report in the standalone application.

Please note that any additional features activated through code like the annotation toolbar, are not available in the standalone viewer application.

Interface Elements

Viewer Toolbar

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The features available through the Viewer Toolbar are elaborated in this table.

Toolbar Element	Name	Description
	Toggle sidebar	Displays the sidebar that includes the Thumbnails, Parameters, Document map and Search results panes.
	Print	Displays the Print dialog where you can specify the printing options.
	Galley mode	Provides a viewer mode which removes automatic page breaks from a Report Definition Language (RDLX) and displays data in a single scrollable page. This mode maintains page breaks you create in the report and removes only automatic page breaks.
	Copy	Copies text that you select in the Selection mode to the clipboard.
	Find	Displays the Find dialog to find any text in the report.
	Zoom out	Decreases the magnification of your report.
	Current zoom	Displays the current zoom percentage, which can also be edited.
	Zoom in	Increases the magnification of your report.
	Fit width	Fits the width of the page according to viewer dimensions.
	Fit page	Fits the whole page within the current viewer dimensions.
	Single page view	Shows one page at a time in the viewer.
	Continuous view	Shows all preview pages one below the other.
	Multipage view	Offers you an option to select how many pages to preview in the viewer at one time.
	Navigate to First Page	Takes you to the first page of the report. This button is enabled when a page other than the first page is open.
	Navigate to Preceding Pages	Takes you to the page prior to the current page. This button is enabled when a page other than the first page is open.
	Navigate to Next pages	Takes you to the page following the current page. This button is disabled on reaching the last page of the report.
	Navigate to Last page	Takes you to the last page of the report. This button is disabled on reaching the last page of the report.
	Current page	Opens a specific page in the report. To view a specific page, type the page number and press the Enter key.
	Backward	Takes you to the last viewed page. This button is enabled when you move to any page from the initial report page. Clicking this button for the first time also enables the Forward button.
	Forward	Takes you to last viewed page before you clicked the Backward button. This button is enabled once you click the Backward button.
	Back to parent report	Returns you to the parent report in a drillthrough report.
	Default	Allows you to specify a default mouse pointer mode.
	Refresh	Refreshes the report.
	Pan mode	A hand symbol serves as the cursor that you can use to navigate.
	Selection mode	Allows you to select contents on the report. Click the Copy icon (see image and description below) to copy the selected content to the clipboard.
	Snapshot mode	Allows you to select content on the report that you can paste as an image into any application that accepts pasted images.
	Cancel	Cancels the report rendering.
	Touch Mode	Allows you to select touch mode for the viewer. Note: The Touch Mode button only appears on the toolbar while working on touch enabled devices.
	Annotations	Lets you add annotations. Text: A rectangular box in which you can enter text. Circle: A circle without text. You can change the shape to an oval. Rectangle: A rectangular box without text. Arrow: A 2D arrow in which you can enter text. You can change the arrow direction. Balloon: A balloon caption in which you can enter text. You can point the balloon's tail in any direction. Line: A line with text above or below it. You can add arrow caps to one or both ends and select different dash styles. Image: A rectangle with a background image and text. You can select an image and its position, and place text on the image.

Viewer Sidebar

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The Viewer sidebar appears on the left of the viewer when you click the Toggle sidebar button in the toolbar. By default, the sidebar shows the Thumbnails and Search Results panes. The additional Document map and Parameters also appear in this sidebar according to the interactive features added in the report. You can toggle between any of the viewer panes by clicking the buttons for each pane at the bottom of the sidebar.

Thumbnails pane

The Thumbnails pane appears by default in the sidebar when you click the Toggle sidebar button in the toolbar.

This pane is composed of a thumbnail view of all the pages in a report. Click any thumbnail to navigate directly to the selected report page. You can also zoom in and zoom out of the thumbnails using (+) or (-) button.

 

Document map pane

The Documents Map pane is enabled for reports where the Label property or the Document map label is set. This pane displays the labels of the report sections (for RDLX and RDLX Dashboard reports) as well as for the TextBox, SubReport, and other controls that you label by setting the Label property. The Document Map pane lets you easily navigate to the corresponding area of the report in the viewer by just clicking on the labels.

If a report does not have the Label property or Document map label set, the Documents map pane does not appear in the sidebar.

Search results pane

The Search pane is the other default pane besides Thumbnails that appears in the sidebar when you click the Toggle sidebar button. This pane lets you enter a word or phrase to search within the report.

To search in a report:

1. Enter the word or phrase in the search field.
2. Under Use these additional criteria, you may optionally choose to search for the whole word or match the case of the search string while searching in the report.
3. Click the Search button to see the results appear in the Find results list.
4. Click an item in the list to jump to that item in the report.

To start a new search or clear the current search results, use the Clear button under the Find results list.

Parameters pane

The Viewer allows you to view reports with parameters. In the toolbar, click the Toggle sidebar button to open the Viewer sidebar and if your report contains parameters, the Parameters pane shows up automatically.

1. In the Parameters pane, you are prompted to enter a value by which to filter the data to display.
2. Enter a value or set of values and click View report, to filter the report data and display the report.

If a report does not have parameters, the Parameters pane does not appear in the sidebar. 

Keyboard Shortcuts

The following shortcuts are available on the WinForms Viewer.

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
Ctrl + F	Shows the find dialog.
Ctrl + P	Shows the print dialog.
Esc	Closes the find or print dialogs.
Page Down	Moves to the next page.
Page Up	Moves to the previous page.
Ctrl + T	Shows or hides the table of contents.
Ctrl + Home	Moves to the first page.
Ctrl + End	Moves to the last page.
Ctrl + Right	Navigates forward.
Ctrl + Left	Navigates backward.
Ctrl + -	Zooms out.
Ctrl + +	Zooms in.
Left, Right, Up, Down	Moves the visible area of the page in the corresponding direction.
Ctrl + 0 (zero)	Sets the zoom level to 100%.
Ctrl + rotate mouse wheel	Changes the zoom level up or down.
Ctrl + M	Turns on the continuous view.
Ctrl + S	Turns off the continuous view.
Ctrl + I	Shows multiple pages.
Ctrl + G	Focuses on PageNumber area and selects content.
Shift + rotate mouse wheel	Scrolls horizontally.
Rotate mouse wheel	Scrolls vertically.
F5	Refreshes the report.
Home	Moves to the start of the current page.
End	Moves to the end of the current page.

Viewer's Thumbnails pane shortcut keys

You can use the following shortcut keys while using the thumbnails pane in the Viewer.

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
Up Arrow	Goes to the previous page.
Down Arrow	Goes to the next page.
Right Arrow	Goes to right page. If no thumbnail exist on the right, it goes to the next page.
Left Arrow	Goes to left page. If no thumbnail exist on the left, it goes to the previous page.
Page Down	Scrolls to the next thumbnail's view port. It also keeps the current selected page unchanged.
Page Up	Scrolls to the previous thumbnail's view port. It also keeps the current selected page unchanged.
Home	Goes to the first page.
End	Goes to last page.