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How to: Add Bevel, Emboss, and Texture Styles to a Chart (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS)

When using certain chart types, you can specify a drawing effect to increase the visual impact of your chart. These drawing effects are only applied to the series of your chart. They have no effect on any other chart element.

When you are using any variant of a pie or doughnut chart, you can specify a soft edge or concave drawing style, similar to bevel or emboss effects that can be applied to an image.

When you are using any variant of a bar or column chart, you can apply texture styles, such as cylinder, wedge, and light-to-dark, to the individual bars or columns.

In addition to these drawing styles, you can add borders and shadows to many chart elements to give the illusion of depth. For more information on other ways to format the chart, see Formatting a Chart (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

Note

You can create and modify report definitions (.rdl) in Report Builder 3.0 and in Report Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio. Each authoring environment provides different ways to create, open, and save reports and related items. For more information, see Designing Reports in Report Designer and Report Builder 3.0 (SSRS) on the Web at microsoft.com.

To add bevel or emboss styles to a pie or doughnut chart

  1. On the View tab, select Properties to open the Properties pane.

  2. Select the pie or doughnut chart that you want to enhance. Select a data field in the chart, not the entire chart.

  3. In the Properties pane, expand the CustomAttributes node.

  4. For PieDrawingStyle, select a style from the drop-down list.

Note

You can't have 3D and bevel or emboss styles on the same chart. If you have enabled 3D for the chart, you will not see the PieDrawingStyle property.

Pie chart with concave drawing style

To add texture styles to a bar or column chart

  1. Select the bar or column chart that you want to enhance. Select a data field in the chart, not the entire chart.

  2. Open the Properties pane.

  3. Expand the CustomAttributes node.

  4. For DrawingStyle, select a style from the drop-down list.

Note

You can't have 3D and bevel or emboss styles on the same chart. If you have enabled 3D for the chart, you will not see the PieDrawingStyle property.

Bar chart with LightToDark drawing effect