This book, complemented with sample code on an accompanying CD-ROM, provides a comprehensive guide in using SQL Reporting Services - yes, Step By Step as the title says. In addition to the hardcopy, you also get an eBook version in PDF format and therefore your book can travel with you, say on your laptop. If the aim is learning Reporting Services in a well-structured way, there is nothing better than one coming straight from the Horse's mouth (the Horse being Microsoft).
If you haven't already installed Reporting Services, be warned that in a certain situation you may experience installation problems. SQL 2005 Reporting Services is a 32-bit software (there is no 64-bit version of it although 64-bit SQL Server 2005 exists) and installing it on 64-bit operating system such as Server 2008 could be painful particularly if there are other applications running under IIS Applications Pools. Reporting Services requires an Application Pool that runs with 32-bit enabled and loading modules by 64-bit and 32-bit applications can be problematic (can be done but one has to put in some time and effort to get this right). For a start, the default IIS Application Pool needs to be set to 32-bit even for SQL Reporting Service feature to show up in the installation. I suggest if possible to steer away from this problem, say going for SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services instead which will serve the same purpose (and more up-to-date) but has no issues with 32-bit/64-bit. On the other hand, if the SQL installation is a stand-alone and for the purpose of this training (preferably in 32-bit version), then everything should go smoothly.
An authoritative learning guide and highly recommended (provided SQL Reporting Services is running as it should ;-)
