## Chapter 6 Displaying Text

A report typically presents most of its information in textual format. In fact, we can safely assume that all reports contain text. Even if a report consists primarily of charts or pictures, it still uses text to label charts, display titles, describe the charts or pictures, and so on.

Textual information can be:

- Static text, which is text that you type in the report
You use static text in a report title, column headings, or to write a summary about the report.
- String, number, or date values that are derived from data-set fields
The majority of information in a report typically comes from data-set fields.
- String, number, or date values that are derived from JavaScript expressions
Reports often contain information that is calculated, such as the report-generation date, or the number of records in a report table.

Textual information can be as short as a single word, or span multiple paragraphs, even pages. BIRT Report Designer handles all lengths of text elegantly. When you insert a textual element, you do not need to worry about specifying an element size that is large enough to display all the text. BIRT Report Designer automatically adjusts the size of elements to accommodate their contents.