The visibility property of Report items can be a little gem. You can set the initial visibility of an item to hidden/visible , use another report item (a parent group in a table or matrix) and set the initial appearance of the toggle icon (+/-) either absolutely or using expressions. By using expressions, you can dynamically determine whether or not the item should be hidden (or collapsed in the case of a table/matrix grouping), and subsequently set the initial appearance of the icon.

In the example below, textbox8 is my toggle item for the group “Priority“. When the report loads I want to show the “critical” items in an expanded state, and all other priorities in a collapsed state. By right-clicking ontextbox8 and choosing properties I get the window below. Select Expression for the Initial appearance of the icon and enter a formula that will determine whether the initial appearance of the icon is expanded (’true‘) or collapsed (’false‘). What you use in your expression to evaluate whether or not the toggle item is expanded or collapsed is up to you.

Note. The above assumes that the Group “Priority” has already had it’s visibility set using an appropriate expression to show the “Critical” items expanded and all other collapsed when the report is run. It also assumes that the visibility of the group “Priority” is toggled by another item (textbox8).

Fig 1. Text Box Property dialog, showing the Visibility Tab

The result is shown in Fig 2.