Format main report like table in iReport Designer 5.0.1?

[ibrewster]

I have a bunch of reports that I design where the data is displayed in a simple columinar format. Currently I am designing these reports by 1) Creating all the fields in iReport designer, 2) placing all the fields, one-by-one, in the detail section of the report designer 3) tweaking things till my fingers fall off.

This is, obviously, a pain in the neck - I have to place all the fields, try to guess at a reasonable size based on the expected contents, and then tweak all sizes untill everything fits. If I add a column (field), I then have to resize everything after that. Heaven forbid I want vertical borders betweent the fields, as then I would have to move a dozen (or more) tiny vertical lines as well. I would much prefer to be able to say "Put these fields in a table layout", and be able to resize columns by draging boundries, much like I would in excel. Is this possible, and if so, how? I have looked at the "table" object, but it keeps asking me to create a "datasource", rather than just being able to use the fields I have already created.