In SSRS is there a way to copy formatting between cells?

Question

I am developing several dozen reports in SSRS 2008 R2. I am finding the formatting of cells to be the most tedious and error prone part of the task. I know how to individually format each cell.

Is there a way to copy the format of one cell to many other cells?

I would like to avoid doing search and replace in XML, but I am open to it. My dataset queries are parameterized MDX.

Is it possible to format an entire column at once? Or do you always have to format each individual textbox in a column? Is there a way to specify default formatting for each textbox?

Answer 1

Working on the assumption that you're right-clicking each Text Box and using TextBox Properties to edit the formatting options:

If you go to the View menu in BIDS and select Properties Window, you will get access to all properties of each object at once (in my BIDS it displays below the Solution Explorer on the right).

Assuming you're talking about a Tablix control within a report here, You can format an entire column simply by clicking the column header and editing the formatting options in the Properties Window.

When it comes to say 4 or 5 cells together but not an entire column/row, you can shift-click to allow you to format multiple cells in one go.

I.e. click Cell 1, hold down shift and then click Cell 4. The Properties Window will then let you edit all the cells in the selected range.