ActiveReports allows you to overlay static report formats over data reports.

These steps demonstrate how to overlay an ActiveReports report, displaying customers orders by country, with a static letterhead report.

The final report will look as shown.

Create a report

1. Open Visual Studio to create a new project.
2. Select ActiveReports 18 Section Report (code-based), click Next.    
3. In the Project name field, rename SectionReport1.cs as rptData.
4. Click Create.
5. Double-click rptData.cs to open the report in the Section Report designer.

Bind Report to Data

1. As you create a new report, the Report Data Source dialog appears for you to configure the report data connection. You can also access this dialog by clicking the DataSource Icon in the Detail section band.
2. Choose Custom tab > SQLite Provider in the Report Data Source dialog, and bind the report to Sqlite data using the following connection string and query.

   Connection String	Copy Code
   data source=c:\data\NWIND.db

    

   Query	Copy Code
   Select * from Customers ORDER BY Country

3. Click OK to close the Report Data Source dialog and return to the report design surface.   

Design Report Layout (rptData)

1. Select the PageHeader section and in the Properties Window, set the Height property to 0.65. (This will match the height of the page header in the template.)
2. On the design surface, select the grey area outside the report and in the Properties window, set the PrintWidth property to 6.5.
3. Right-click the report and select Insert > GroupHeader/Footer to add group header and group footer sections.
4. Select the group header and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

   Property Name	Property Value
   Name	ghCustomers
   BackColor	MediumSlateBlue
   CanShrink	True
   DataField	Country
   GroupKeepTogether	FirstDetail
   KeepTogether	True

5. From the toolbox, drag the following controls to ghCustomers and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

   TextBox1

   Property Name	Property Value
   DataField	="Customers in " + Country (DataField)
   Size	2, 0.2 in
   Location	0, 0 in
   Font Bold	True
   ForeColor	White
   Font Size	12

   Label1

   Property Name	Property Value
   Text	ID
   Size	0.6, 0.2 in
   Location	0, 0.2 in
   Font Bold	True
   ForeColor	DarkSlateBlue

   Label2

   Property Name	Property Value
   Text	Company Name
   Size	1.1, 0.2 in
   Location	0.7, 0.2 in
   Font Bold	True
   ForeColor	DarkSlateBlue

   Label3

   Property Name	Property Value
   Text	Address
   Size	1, 0.2 in
   Location	2.7, 0.2 in
   Font Bold	True
   ForeColor	DarkSlateBlue

   Label4

   Property Name	Property Value
   Text	City
   Size	1, 0.2 in
   Location	5.5, 0.2 in
   Font Bold	True
   ForeColor	DarkSlateBlue

6. Click the Detail section and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

   Property Name	Property Value
   BackColor	LightGray
   CanShrink	True

7. From the toolbox, drag four TextBox controls onto the Detail section and set the properties of each textbox as follows.

   TextBox1

   Property Name	Property Value
   DataField	CustomerID
   Size	0.6, 0.2 in
   Location	0, 0 in

   TextBox2

   Property Name	Property Value
   DataField	CompanyName
   Size	2, 0.2 in
   Location	0.7, 0 in

   TextBox3

   Property Name	Property Value
   DataField	Address
   Size	2.8, 0.2 in
   Location	2.7, 0 in

   TextBox4

   Property Name	Property Value
   DataField	City
   Size	1, 0.2 in
   Location	5.5, 0 in

8. Select the group footer and in the Properties window, set the Height property to 0. 

Create a report and design Report Layout (rptLetterhead)

1. Go to Project in the Visual Studio menu and select Add New Item...
2. Select ActiveReports 18 Section Report (code-based).
3. In the Project name field, rename SectionReport2.cs as rptLetterhead.
4. Click Create.
5. Double-click rptLetterhead.cs to open the report in the Section Report designer.
6. Select the Page Header and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

   Property Name	Property Value
   BackColor	DarkSlateBlue
   Height	0.65

7. From the toolbox, drag a Label control onto the Page Header and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

   Label1

   Property Name	Property Value
   Size	6.5, 0.65 in
   Location	0, 0 in
   Font Size	36
   Font Bold	True
   ForeColor	White
   Text	Mescius

8. Select the Page Footer and in the Properties window, set the BackColor property to DarkSlateBlue.
9. From the toolbox, drag a Label control onto the Page Footer and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

   Property Name	Property Value
   Size	6.5, 0.2 in
   Location	0, 0 in
   Alignment	Center
   Font Bold	True
   ForeColor	White
   Text	984-242-0700, https://developer.mescius.com/activereportsnet, activereports.sales@mescius.com

Add Code to Overlay Data Report Pages with Letterhead Report

1. Double-click the title bar of the Windows Form to create an event-handling method for the Form_Load event.
2. Add the following code to the handler to set the viewer to display the rptData report document an to overlay rptLetterhead on rptData.

   Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event.	Copy Code
   Dim rpt As New rptData() rpt.Run() Dim rpt2 As New rptLetterhead() rpt2.Run() Dim i As Integer For i = 0 To rpt.Document.Pages.Count - 1 rpt.Document.Pages(i).Overlay(rpt2.Document.Pages(0)) Next Viewer1.Document = rpt.Document

   C# code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event.	Copy Code
   rptData rpt = new rptData(); rpt.Run(); rptLetterhead rpt2 = new rptLetterhead(); rpt2.Run(); for(int i = 0; i < rpt.Document.Pages.Count; i++) { rpt.Document.Pages[i].Overlay(rpt2.Document.Pages[0]); } viewer1.Document = rpt.Document;

3. Improve the appearance of the report and preview.