The style of the line or the outline of a graphic control.
Pen Style on the General page in the Properties view.
Values are:
0—Solid
1—Dash
2—Dotted
3—Dash-dot
pattern
4—Dash-dot-dot
pattern
5—Null
(no visible line)
In this example, statements check the employee’s start date to see if the month is the current month or the month following the current month. Properties of a rectangle control placed behind the row of data are changed to highlight employees with months of hire that match the current month or the month following the current month.
The Design view includes columns of data and a rectangle behind the data. The rectangle has been changed to black in the following picture to make it stand out:
The following statement is for the Pen.Color property of the line around the edge of the rectangle. If the month of the start date matches the current month or the next one, Pen.Color is set to light gray (12632256). If not, it is set to white (16777215), which means it will not show:
If(month( start_date ) = month(today()) or month( start_date ) = month(today())+1 or (month(today()) = 12 and month(start_date)=1), 12632256, 16777215)
The following statement is for the Pen.Style property of the rectangle. If the month of the start date matches the current month or the next one, Pen.Style is set to Solid (0). If not, it is set to NULL (5), which means it will not show:
If(month( start_date ) = month(today()) or month( start_date ) = month(today())+1 or (month(today()) = 12 and month(start_date)=1), 0, 5)
Expressions are also defined for Brush.Color and Brush.Hatch.
For more about these properties, see “Brush.Hatch”.
The following is a portion of the resulting report. A rectangle with light gray cross-hatching highlights employees whose reviews are due soon. The line enclosing the rectangle is Light Gray and uses the pen style Solid (0):
