bcquality/custom/knowledge/performance/document-reports-should-default-to-word-layout.md

bc-version	domain	keywords	technologies	countries	application-area
all	performance	report-layout word-layout rdlc document-report sandbox-app-domain rendering	al	w1	all

Document reports should default to a Word layout, not RDLC

Description

When a new or extended report is a document report — an invoice, statement, order confirmation, or any report meant to be printed, emailed, or exported as a single-record document — its default rendering layout should be Word, not RDLC. This is Microsoft's own current recommendation, not just a style preference: RDLC layouts run in a sandboxed app domain that only lives for the current report invocation, which is slower for UI-related actions (like sending the resulting document by email) than a Word layout, which is not subject to that sandbox constraint.

This does not apply uniformly to every report. Tabular/list reports with heavy aggregation or complex calculated columns are still often a better fit for RDLC (or Excel), because Word's table-based layout model doesn't handle that as well. The distinguishing question is whether the report represents one structured document per record (Word) or a data listing (RDLC/Excel) — not "RDLC vs. Word" as a blanket choice.

Best Practice

report 50100 "Sales Quote Confirmation"
{
    // ...
    rendering
    {
        layout(Word)
        {
            Type = Word;
            LayoutFile = './Layouts/SalesQuoteConfirmation.docx';
            Caption = 'Word Layout';
        }
    }

    DefaultRenderingLayout = Word;
}

Anti Pattern

report 50100 "Sales Quote Confirmation"
{
    // ...
    rendering
    {
        layout(RDLC)
        {
            Type = RDLC;
            LayoutFile = './Layouts/SalesQuoteConfirmation.rdl';
        }
    }

    DefaultRenderingLayout = RDLC;
}

Building a document report's default layout in RDLC by default — because it's the more familiar tool, or because a template happened to use it — inherits RDLC's sandboxed-app-domain performance cost for no reason tied to the report's actual content or calculation needs.

Source

Microsoft Learn, "Creating an RDL layout report" and "(Obsolete) Set the Layout Used by a Report": "RDL layouts can result in slower performance with document reports... we recommend that you design Word layouts instead of RDL... reports are not impacted by the security constraints on sandbox app domains like they are with RDL layouts" — and "Document reports (not lists) that use a Word report layout are typically faster than those that use an RDLC report layout." Verified 2026-08-12.