>I have also tried to force the textual data to occupy all space on page 1, by creating one dummy object that absorbs all remaining white space, but somehow I did not succeed. Perhaps you know the trick to do this?

The trick is to put a tiny shape at the end of the band and put a special "directive" on that shape. In the directive class for that shape, use the AdjustObjectSize method to alter the height of the shape to be equal to the MaxheightAvailable property + 1. That makes the report writer think that the shape won't print so it goes to the next page. Then use the Render method to tell it NOT to print the shape.

I also use a similar trick on pictures. If you design the report with a large picture image, and not every record has a picture, you can end up wasting space at the bottom of the page. The workaround is to create the image object very tiny .. then use the directive concept and the AdjustObjectSize method to expand the size of the image to what you want. The report writer will print the larger size .. and it's smart enough to know to go to the next page if it needs to.