>>Tim
>Have you tried the following: In the rectangle properties stretching downwards relative to the height of the band?

yeah, but if the fields ABOVE the box have stretched, the box stretches too much, leaving something like this:

__________________
| blah |
| blah blah |
| |
| blah blah |
| |
|_________________|

and it is ugly that way, and wastes precious space..