Crystal Reports Archives

Creating Report Alerts in Crystal Reports

In Crystal Reports, a feature called Report Alerts has become more important the last few years. It has to do with the fact that there are at least occasional exceptions to many kinds of report data. “Problems or conditions outside the norm” is a good …

Creating and Using Parameter Fields in Crystal Reports

When setting up layouts in Crystal Reports, the parameter field can be a tremendously helpful feature. As with a parameter query in Microsoft Access, it gives the report a significant degree of flexibility. The report’s basic structure and purpose are the same, but the ability …

Using Multiple Sections in Crystal Reports

When “laying out” data in Crystal Reports, we usually think of written information. Graphics such as charts do enter into reports, but we don’t always use photographs or other non-data images, especially in the Details section where the data will go. If, for example, we …

How to Filter Data in Crystal Reports

When you run a report in Crystal Reports, you have a lot of latitude as to what goes in, how to format and organize, and so on. But one consideration that doesn’t always come up is how to filter, or leave data out. Turns out, …

Using Character Mapping to Enhance a Crystal Report

It is possible to dress up a report using nothing more than a font and some color. But not in the way you think. There are some specialty fonts installed on a Windows computer know as Wingdings. Each letter is a small picture (like a …

Crystal Reports Performance Information Tool

After designing a report Crystal Reports provides a built-in utility that will allow you to test performance and shine a light on areas where optimization would be beneficial. It is called the Performance Information tool and can be found by selecting Report > Performance Information …

Making “Can Grow” a Global Setting in Crystal Reports

There are a lot of different setting we talk about during our Crystal Reports classes. Much of the information we end up displaying within these reports consists of text, and in our quest to make it fit we end up making constant adjustments to width and height. That is, until we are introduced to the string format option can grow.

With one simple format setting we eliminate the need to make those height adjustments.

Here is what we are talking about. Our example will use a simple group heading to identify the country of origin.

It looks like this in print preview.

We decide to increase the group heading font size from 10 points to 12 points and discover upon previewing that some of the text has been truncated.

Code Hinting in Crystal Reports Formula Workshop

When using Crystal Reports, formulas play a large role in preforming such basic tasks as conditional formatting, selecting records, and general calculations. The code window for all of these tasks is called the Formula Workshop. It is a centralized window divided into five sections; Workshop …

Crystal Reports – Add True Bullets to a List in a Text Object with the CHRW Function

Suppose you want to display a list of items in a text object and you want that list to appear as a bulleted list. If your list is hard coded (i.e. USA, Canada, Mexico), then you could simply type the character that represents a bullet, like an asterisk, and have your list in no time flat.

Our example will have a bit of static text at the beginning followed by the bullet list. The static text will read as follows:

“Last Year’s Sales and Suppliers for”

We will follow up the text with a carriage return to ensure the bullet list begins on a fresh row in the text object. This is where you could type something like the following:

* USA

* Canada

* Mexico

The finished product would look like:

Bullet01

Suppose your list if items is the result of selections made within a parameter and you want to display that user-defined list with bullets. The first thing you have to realize is that you can’t just place the parameter in the text box and get the list.

How to Create a Crystal Report using Microsoft Excel Data

Create a Crystal Report using Excel DataWatch this video on YouTube In this tutorial, you’ll see how to create a report in Crystal Reports using data from an excel worksheet. This video will demonstrate the different methods for connecting to Microsoft Excel data from Crystal …