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Report Builder training course

Two days (09:30 to 16:30 UK time each day)

This course is available in the following formats (all prices exclude VAT):

 

You can book a place on this course either online through this website, by phone, by email or by filling in our enquiry form.

There are no particular pre-requisites for this course, although a passing knowledge of how relational databases are formed will help. In particular, no knowledge of SQL is needed.

Course schedule

Here are our next few Report Builder course dates:

Dates Times Venue Price (excl. VAT)
12-13 Dec 09:30-16:30 Online £825 Book
22-23 Jan 09:30-16:30 Online £825 Book
13-14 Feb 09:30-16:30 Online £825 Book
11-12 Mar 09:30-16:30 Online £825 Book
14-15 Apr 09:30-16:30 Online £825 Book
Show full list of dates

Got a handful of like-minded people in your organisation? You could consider booking your own customised onsite course, whereby you get to pick the dates and venue!

Course Contents - PDF

Report Builder training course contents

On this two-day course, you'll learn how to create reports in Report Builder, including:

  • Linking to your SQL Server database to show data in tables

  • Grouping tables (including setting titles to expand/collapse)

  • Using the expression builder to add columns to tables, and to apply conditional formatting

  • Creating dropdown parameters for filtering what to show in your reports

  • Adding special effects such as indicators and gauges

  • Creating charts and matrices (think pivot tables) in reports

Report Builder is almost identical to SQL Server Reporting Services (you can see the differences here).  As this link shows, in an ideal world you're probably better off learning SSRS, but many companies only allow staff to create reports using the standalone Report Builder application.

The contents of this course are as follows:

Basic reports

  • Text boxes and images
  • Selecting report items
  • Formatting parts of a report

Data sources and datasets

  • Data sources
  • Datasets
  • Using query designer

Tables

  • Creating tables
  • Interactive sorting
  • Floating headers

Grouping

  • Inserting groups
  • Group headers/footers
  • Displaying group totals
  • Expanding and collapsing

Expressions

  • The expression builder
  • The ReportItems collection
  • Built-in fields
  • Conditional formatting expressions

Page set-up

  • Page headers and footers
  • Page names and numbers

Exporting reports

  • The various report formats
  • Using RenderFormat.Name

Parameters

  • Creating parameters
  • Filtering using parameters
  • Drop list parameters
  • Coping with empty tables

Matrices

  • Row and column groups
  • Sorting and filtering matrices
  • Creating subtotals

Charts

  • Creating charts
  • The parts of a chart
  • Formatting charts

Miniature charts   if time

  • Creating sparklines
  • Creating data bars

Graphical indicators

  • Creating and customising indicators
  • Linear and radial gauges

Lists

  • Page-per-record lists
  • Dashboard lists
  • Other list ideas

Subreports   if time

  • Creating a child report
  • Creating the main report
  • Linking the two reports

Drill-through reports   if time

  • Parent and child reports
  • Creating actions
  • Passing values to a child report

The SSRS web portal

  • Browsing to the web portal
  • Viewing reports
  • Managing reports
Please see further up this page for what you should know beforehand (if anything) in order to attend this course.

Why Choose Us?

Here are some reasons to choose Wise Owl courses:

In addition, here are some benefits unique to classroom training:

And some benefits specific to online training:

  • Courseware manual posted to you in advance
  • Free half-hour pre-course check-up included
  • Our clever system means you can use our laptops (and we can see them)

What other people have said

Our thanks to everyone who agreed to share their thoughts. All of the following reviews are from the last 3 calendar years:

"Amazing courses! Great trainer, pace and content. I literally couldn't have asked for better introductions to SQL and Power BI. Plus I have some many great resources to refer back to in the future :) Thank you!"

Simone Capp (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG))

"The course met my expectations and was well delivered, by a clearly knowledgeable trainer."

Ian Voce (Merseyside Resilience Forum)

"I had a clear understanding of all the sections covered, as it was very well explained. An informative and well presented course."

Barbara Colquhoun (Syntor Fine Chemicals Ltd / Actylis)

"An incredible trainer. I've done a fair amount of coaching / training etc in the past and our trainer was so good that I kept having to remember I was doing the course, not just getting tips on how to train well. :) Course content was also excellent - exactly the right pace and depth for me. Thank you."

James Charnock (Manchester Metropolitan University)

"Fantastic Trainer and Online Training Experience. Power BI has always been something that I have been wary of, but thanks to the amazing trainer, everything was explained so simply, I now feel at ease with the system."

Terry Lancaster (Manchester Metropolitan University)

There are lots more where these came from (or just refresh this page to change the quotes shown).

How our training courses work

Below are some notes on how Wise Owl courses work, to help you decide whether they're for you or not.

What you'll need

If you book on a classroom course, the only thing you need to bring to the course is ... yourself! We even provide a notepad and a suprisingly nice pen for you to take notes with.

For online training you'll need two things:

  1. A good internet connection (otherwise you'll have a frustrating time); and
  2. A second screen (a requirement, not a nice-to-have!)

You can see full details of our online course requirements here.

When you book a place

If you book a place on one of our courses:

  • For classroom courses we will send out a joining email. That's it!
  • For online courses we will get in touch to organise a half-hour pre-course check to iron out any connection problems before the course (rather than during it).

Whatever type of course you book, we will also send you out a reminder a few days before the course is due to take place - not that (we hope) you'll have forgotten!

What you won't need

For classroom training, you won't need a computer - we (obviously) will provide that. However, you're welcome to use your own laptop if you prefer, providing that you have the correct software installed.

For online training you will need a computer, but you won't need to have any software installed.  This is because you'll use Windows Remote Desktop to connect to our computers, and these will have all of the necessary files and software installed.

The start of the course

For online courses you will be able to join up to half an hour before the course begins. This will give you time to:

  • familiarise yourself with the set-up;
  • meet your trainer; and
  • get to know the other delegates!

For classroom training it's always nice if people arrive a bit early too, to give people time to meet each other (and drink coffee).

You'll be given a full colour courseware manual, an exercise booklet to go with the course and a USB stick for taking course files away (we'll post all this to you for online courses).

After the course

After the course finishes you'll receive a digital certificate proving your attendance (we will gladly send a paper copy on request also).

We don't have any formal arrangement for answering questions after the course, but if you get stuck on something and email your trainer they should (and nearly always do!) respond as quickly as their training schedule allows.

Related Courses

You might like to consider these related courses:

Reporting Services RECOMMENDED

Introduction

2 day course

Advanced SSRS

Advanced

2 day course

Introduction to SQL

Introduction

2 day course

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