title: How can I add TextBoxes to an existing Matrix in an SSRS project?
body: <p>Why is it that a control that appears in the property list in a BIDS project is not represented in the corresponding .rdl file?</p>
  
  <p>Let me step back a bit; I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to add items to an existing report, either via the XML (.rdl viewed as code) or on the design surface. I can click on a rectangle on the design surface and see a column row above it:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zPH70.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zPH70.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>And if I click on the "pipe"-separated segements on that column heading row, I see "MatrixColumn4", "MatrixColumn3", "MatrixColumn2", and "MatrixColumn1" in the designer; for example, here's MatrixColumn3:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/yd9zs.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/yd9zs.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>However, only one of these columns appears at a time in the Property list - if I select MatrixColumn3 on the design surface, MatrixColumn1, MatrixColumn2, and MatrixColumn4 are not there. The same holds true for selecting any of the others - it turns up temporarily in the Properties list but "hides" all the others:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3Mfxe.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3Mfxe.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>Stranger yet, when I search the .rdl file (viewed as XML) for "MatrixColumn1" (or "2" or "3" or "4") they do not exist there. In fact, the only reference to "MatrixColumn" in the entire file is this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Matrix Name="matrix1"&gt;
        &lt;MatrixColumns&gt;
          &lt;MatrixColumn&gt;
            &lt;Width&gt;1.67609in&lt;/Width&gt;
          &lt;/MatrixColumn&gt;
        &lt;/MatrixColumns&gt;
    . . .
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This seems exceedingly bizarre - shouldn't there be four sets of <code>&lt;MatrixColumn&gt;&lt;/MatrixColumn&gt;</code> there?</p>
  
  <p>I want to add another column heading, with a Textbox-as-label and a Textbox below that to display dynamic content, but how can I do it without adding another column heading?, or at least making room for this new column? </p>
  
  <p>I can increase the width of the matrix ("matrix1") by dragging it or by increasing its Size.Width value, but its existing contents expand with it, giving me no room to add TextBoxes inside of it.</p>
  
  <p>Maybe I'm approaching SSRS from a completely wrong mental angle, as I don't see much of a connection between what the report generates and what I see on the design surface and in the XML.</p>