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 …

Crystal Reports – Missing Template Preview

When applying a template to a report, it’s often preferred to “peek” inside the template to see what it has to offer prior to applying it to your report; to “take it for a test drive”, as it were.

If you have a vast template library, and many templates are similarly named, it can be of great benefit to see a preview of what you will receive if applied. The Template Expert provides just such a preview.

Preview01

For those who prefer to create their own templates, and possibly add them to the library, the preview feature may not display if certain prerequisites have not been satisfied.

Crystal Reports – Importing Values and Descriptions into Parameters

If you are creating a list of choices for a parameter drop-down list, you can acquire the choices from several sources:

Manually enter the choices in the list (static and least exciting of all of the options)
Append a unique list of choices derived from a field in the database (static)
Point to a database field for available existing choices (dynamic)
Import items from a text file (static)

Each of the options has their pros and cons. If you are trying to generate a list that is unlikely to change (like a list of states in the USA) and you need to ensure all options are made available from Day 1, the first option of manually entering all of the choices is the typical approach.

But what if all of those choices exist in another report or file? In this case, the ability to import list selections has great appeal.

Crystal Reports Multi-Pass Processing Engine

Crystal Reports uses a three-pass reporting method to generate reports. A pass is a process that Crystal Reports uses each time the data is read and manipulated. Depending on the complexity of the report Crystal Reports may make 1, 2, or 3 passes over the data. This feature allows for complex reporting and formula manipulation.

Crystal Reports – Adding a Watermark to a Report

If you have ever looked for the watermark feature in Crystal Reports, you no doubt walked away smothered in soul-crushing despair wondering how Life could be so cruel.

True, there is no official tool in Crystal Reports that adds a watermark to a report, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Adding a watermark just takes a bit of creativity and a handful of mouse click and keystrokes.

The trick is to add a subsection and underlay the following sections in the report. The steps are as follows:

Crystal Reports – Clear Recent Reports History

As with most applications, Crystal Reports maintains a history of the last several reports opened so as to facilitate repeated access.

ClearRecent01

This is a very helpful feature, but there comes a time in every report user’s life when they just want to clear the list and start clean.

Many applications contain a mechanism that allows the user to clear either individual entries or empty the entire list. Sadly, Crystal Reports contains no such feature.