Crystal Reporting 10

[MarkAndrews]

Does anyone else on here use this?

M

 

[litrelord]

I do.

Well actually I use version 9 but having used 10 before the differences are normally minimal.

If you're after help the forums around the web are pretty sparse. Certainly there are none as good as this board or theofficeexperts. Businessobjects have recently updated their site to contain a forum which is actually quite good, seems to get some good answers. Their knowledgebase is invaluable as well.

Forms are here:

http://technicalsupport.businessobjects.com/KanisaSupportSite/forum/forumshome.do?id=m4

Link to the knowledgebase as well as other sections which are useful (downloads etc) is here

http://support.businessobjects.com/

Or maybe you don't need any help and were just wondering in which case ignore this whole post

Nick

 

[MarkAndrews]

Thanks, appreciate your reply

Just starting to use version 10 - all seems pretty straight forward (to a new user of the whole package)

Its useful to know someone on here in case of need

Mark

 

[litrelord]

Yeah it's a great product. Simple to use but can be pretty powerful as well the more you learn about it. If you're used to excel it's only a short step away in many cases. The formulas and user defined functions you can create are almost identical to VBA, you can even write them in basic syntax instead of crystal syntax so you can almost copy and paste macros into your formulas. Instead of pivot tables, in crystal they're called cross-tabs. Almost identical functionality.

Don't be restricted as to what you use crystal for would be my best piece of advice. As well as working with reports from our company database I've used it for querying access, excel, the windows file system (pulling off a list of files from a group of folders similar to using dir in DOS but with much more flexibility) and many other things.

Also, once you're comfortable with the basics, download some of the example reports from the businessobjects site. It's a good way to learn how to create reports.

And finally, once you've used it for a while you could go for the CRCP (Crystal Reports Certified Professional) exams, similar to the MOUS exams for office. You can read about that here

http://www.businessobjects.com/certification

Last time I looked you can do all the modules and sit the exam for just under £1500. Small change if you can get your company to pay for it. I still haven't got round to it mind you.

And before you ask, no I don't work for Business Objects

Nick

 

[MarkAndrews]

Yeah it's a great product. Simple to use but can be pretty powerful as well the more you learn about it. If you're used to excel it's only a short step away in many cases. The formulas and user defined functions you can create are almost identical to VBA, you can even write them in basic syntax instead of crystal syntax so you can almost copy and paste macros into your formulas. Instead of pivot tables, in crystal they're called cross-tabs. Almost identical functionality.

Don't be restricted as to what you use crystal for would be my best piece of advice. As well as working with reports from our company database I've used it for querying access, excel, the windows file system (pulling off a list of files from a group of folders similar to using dir in DOS but with much more flexibility) and many other things.

Also, once you're comfortable with the basics, download some of the example reports from the businessobjects site. It's a good way to learn how to create reports.

And finally, once you've used it for a while you could go for the CRCP (Crystal Reports Certified Professional) exams, similar to the MOUS exams for office. You can read about that here

http://www.businessobjects.com/certification

Last time I looked you can do all the modules and sit the exam for just under £1500. Small change if you can get your company to pay for it. I still haven't got round to it mind you.

And before you ask, no I don't work for Business Objects

Nick

Cheers Nick - My company are paying for a training course which has a certificate at the end of it

One thing I am struggling with at the moment is "date prompts" - The help file is about as useful as a paper umbrella!

Still, no doubt once this training is arranged all will become clear

Then i have to migrate all our existing reports onto Crystal - which should be fun!

Thanks for your advice!

Mark

 

[litrelord]

What is it your trying to do, create date prompts? or do you have them already built into your reports?

 

[MarkAndrews]

Sorry for the delayed response

I'm trying to create em - going wrong everytime!

????

 

[litrelord]

What I generally do for that is create 2 new parameters called start_date and end_date setting the value type as Date. Then in the report is use the select expert to say that the date field i'm looking at has to be between the two dates. When entering the dates use any random dates and then go into the formula editor of the select expert and replace the dates you typed with the parameters.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

If that doesn't work let me now what you're doing so far and what isn't working.

 

[MarkAndrews]

I'll give it a try, thanks alot

Mark