I am converting an Access report that has a group header that has about twenty fields, arranged in three columns of fields across the first half of the page,something you would usually do in SSRS with the list control. It then has a detail record section that prints on the second half of the page. I am at a loss on how to convert this style of report to SSRS style reporting, the parameter mapping between the two keeps giving me an error that fields cannot be used for parameters when I try to use the key field on the list display section as the parameter to the detail view.  I tried just dragging the table into the list view control, no luck. Am I missing a trick ?

No, you cannot do that.  Keep in mind that SSRS is not directly comparable to Access.  The Services in the phrase SQL Server Reporting Services gives you a clue -- it's a set of services, not a self-contained development environment like Access.  Out of the box, Microsoft provides you with a report manager and viewer.  In this viewer, they have included simple drop down lists which are basic HTML elements.  There is nothing stopping you from designing your own web page with your own drop downs to call and render an SSRS report.  However, the best solution would probably be to simply write a query to return all three columns separated by a pipe symbol to use as your drop-down description.

By experimenting, I found a solution:

Created a list box, stretched it into the half page area, and then populated it with the fields found in the Access report header.

Created another report with just the detail records, using a stored procedure that took a parameter that matched the key field of the list.

Back to main report, added a row to this giant list box.

Dragged my detail table report as a sub report into this row.

Mapped the key field of the list data to the parameter of the sub report table.

Looks exactly like a typical Access report. And they say it couldn't be done!

 

I didn't read your initial question close enough.  You're not talking about parameter selections.  But yes, you've found that you can easily embed a subreport within a main report.  You don't even have to use a List.  You can use a regular table if you want the clean/grid look, add another row below that, merge the three cells in the new row, and then add the subreport.