Example 3: highlighting rows of data

The following report is an employee phone list for a company in Massachusetts. Out-of-state (not in Massachusetts) employees are shown in bold and preceded by two asterisks (**):

The sample Employee Phone List has columns for Employee Name and Phone number. Some of the names are preceded by two asterisks and shown in bold face type. A note in bold face at the top states that * * means out of state.

This report uses newspaper columns. To understand how to create this report without highlighting data, see “Printing with newspaper-style columns”.

In the Design view, the detail band includes four controls: the employee last name, a comma, the employee first name, and the phone number:

The sample shows the detail band of the Design view. It includes four controls, from left to right: emp _ l name, a comma, emp _ f name, and phone. Beneath them, the word Design and an up arrow appear.

To make these controls display in bold with two asterisks if the employee is not from Massachusetts:

Select one of the controls, then use Ctrl + click to select the other three controls.

The Properties view changes to show the properties that are common to all selected controls.
On the Font page in the Properties view, click the button next to the Bold property.
Enter the following expression in the Modify Expression dialog box and click OK:
```
If(state = 'MA', 400, 700)
```
The expression states that if the value of the state column is MA, use 400 as the font weight. This means employees from Massachusetts display in the normal font. For any state except MA, use 700 as the font weight. This means all other employees display in bold font.

Logic that relies on the state column To use logic that relies on the state column, you need to include the column in the data source. You can add the column after creating the report by modifying the data source. Notice that the state column does not actually appear anywhere in the report. Values must be available but do not need to be included in the report.

To insert two asterisks (**) in front of the employee name if the employee is not from Massachusetts, add a text control to the left of the employee name with the two asterisks in bold.

With the text control selected, click the button next to its Visible property on the General page in the Properties view.

In the Modify Expression dialog box that displays, enter the following expression and click OK:
```
If(state = 'MA', 0, 1)
```
This expression says that if the state of the employee is MA (the true condition), the Visible property of the ** control is off (indicated by 0). If the state of the employee is not MA (the false condition), the Visible property of the ** control is on (indicated by 1). The asterisks are visible next to that employee’s name.
Tip You can use underlines, italics, strikethrough, borders, and colors to highlight information.