Every client that I've been to has always requested that their reports be "consistent"
across the environment. What better way to accomplish this than to create a template
that can be used for all new report creation!

Basically a report template is nothing more than a report (RDL file) that you choose
as a starting point for building new reports from. The only catch is that you have to
place this report in a specific location on the file system so that the BIDS IDE will
see it. That location is:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\ProjectItems\ReportProject

Now when you want to use this template, right click on the Reports folder in your
project and select New Item. You will then see the name of the report template
you created and added to the above directory. In the graphic below the template is
called AdventureWorksTemplate.

Below is the template I created that you can download and use and modify at your convenience.

Download the RDL file here: CustomReportTemplate.zip

If you have any questions, please feel free to reply to this blog!