Using the Create Layout Suggestion option

Until now we have created the enhanced layout of our report completely manually in Visual Studio. To automatically generate the enhanced layout you have to use the Tools | Create Layout Suggestion option in the menu, as shown in the next screenshot:

Selecting this option will create a new layout for our report. If there was already a layout created, it will overwrite the existing layout with a new one, after asking for validation:

Visual studio will be opened and the report will have a layout generated, as displayed in the next screenshot:

The create layout suggestion will create an RDLC file. As a data region, it will always use a table. The way that the table is created will depend on the way information is laid out in the sections. The following screenshots might shine some light on this mechanism:

Example 1:

This classic layout:

Is converted into this enhanced layout:

Example 2:

This classic layout:

Is converted into this enhanced layout:

Example...