Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports Complete

This course is designed to introduce you to the power of Crystal Reports, and give you a solid grounding in the basics of report creation. It is designed for students that are new to Crystal Reports but that have basic Windows experience. The lessons are illustrated by exercises that use Xtreme.MDB, the sample database that comes with Crystal.

Basics:

Terminology
Using the Standard Expert to get a first draft
Working in Preview mode
Saving and printing

Working in design mode:

Understanding the 7 Sections
Using Undo
Customizing the design environment
Guidelines and snap to grid

Managing Objects:

Adding and deleting objects
Sizing objects and sections
Working with guidelines

Managing Sections:

Controlling the visibility of Sections
Hiding vs. Suppressing
Summary reports and Drill Down
Adding Page breaks
Reseting page numbers
Splitting Sections

Sorting and Grouping:

The difference between Sorting and Grouping
Adding, deleting and changing Sorts
Adding, deleting and changing Groups
The Group Name field
How fields behave in headers and footers

TopN Reports:

Uses for TopN
Sorting Groups
Selecting Top and Bottom Groups
Challenges when using TopN

Basic Group Charts:

Steps to adding a Chart
The basic settings of a Chart
Changing an existing Chart

Grand Totals, Subtotals and Summaries:

Types of Summary Operations
Steps to add a Summary
Changing a Summary
Problems with Summary fields

Cross-Tab Objects:

Uses of a Cross Tab
Adding a Cross-Tab
Changing a Cross-Tab
Multiple row/column/summary Cross-Tabs
Single dimension Cross-Tabs
Cross-Tab placement

Record Selection:

Using the Select Expert
Components of the rules
Editing the Selection Formula directly
Finding Null Values in your data
Using Group Selection
Problems with Group Selection

Creating links:

Linking overview
Table inflation
Using the Visual Linking Expert
Join Types in ODBC
Adding and removing tables manually

Formulas:

Adding a new formula
Punctuation in formulas
Operators in formulas
Editing a formula
Deleting a formula

Functions in Formulas:

Math Functions: (Round(), Sum(), Count(), Average() Minimum() Maximum()
String Functions: Right(), Val(), ToText()
Date Math and Date Functions: Year(), Month(), Day(), DayOfWeek() CurrentDate
Date Range Functions: (MonthToDate, YearToDate, etc.)
Null values in formulas: IsNull()

Other Operators:

If-Then-Else logic
Concatenation
Checking for one string within another
Substring
Value is between
Value is one of
Pasting "browsed" data into a formula

Visual Effects and Presentation:

Formatting fields by data type
Adding borders to objects
Formatting multiple fields
Formatting sections
Adding lines and boxes
Adding special fields

Larger text objects:

Overview
Inserting a Text Object
Editing and formatting a Text Object
Adding fields to a Text Object

Parameter fields:

Adding a parameter
Common uses of parameters
Selecting all including Nulls
Using a parameter to affect sorting, formatting, and detail level of a report
Range and Multiple Parameters.
Lists of default values
Response Restrictions
Dynamic and cascading parameters (only v11-v12)
Interactive Parameters and Sort Controls (only v12)

Alerts:

Adding an Alert
Viewing Alert records
Modifying an Alert

SubReports:

Situations that call for SubReports
Unlinked SubReports
Linked SubReports
Editing a SubReport
Tips for working with SubReports

Running Total Fields:

Running Grand Totals
Using the "Reset" setting to create Running Subtotals
Using the "Evaluate" setting to Sum a value once per group

Variables:

Variables overview
The Declaration Statement
Variable Scopes
The Assignment Operator
Setting the Evaluation time
Variables and Formula punctuation
Controlling the timing of variable assignment
Displaying a Variable without incrementing it
Other uses of variables
Creating Running Totals with Variables

Conditional Formatting:

Check box attributes
Pull-down list of options attributes
Number or text string attributes

Specific Order Grouping:

How to set a Specified Order
How to create a Multi-Value Group
Including and excluding "Others"

Advanced Boolean Operators:

4 uses for the word IN
StartsWith
Like

Advanced Formula Functions:

InStr(), Length(), Val(), ToText(),
OnFirstRecord, OnLastRecord, InRepeatedGroupHeader

Managing Null Values:

Null in the data tables
Formulas that encounter null values
Nulls in the selection formula

Split Sections:

Adding a subsection
Deleting a subsection
Rearranging subsections
How to make a section conditional
Different options for "Keep Together"

Underlay a Section:

Example uses of Underlay
How to make it work

Advanced Cross-Tabs:

Steps to create a Cross-Tab
Cross-Tab placement
Making changes to a Cross-Tab
Advanced Cross-tabs
Adding calculated rows to Crosstabs (v12 only)

Advanced Charts and Maps:

Inserting a Group Chart
Two-Dimensional Charts
Using Advanced Graphs
Using the Analyzer for Advanced Formatting
Using the Mapping feature

Exporting:

Spreadsheets such as Excel or Lotus 123
Word Processing Documents such as Word for Windows
CSV (Comma separated values), also known as comma delimited or Flat ASCII
HTML Exports

Using SQL within Crystal Reports:

Displaying the SQL Statement
Understanding SQL and ODBC
Creating a simple DSN
Adding SQL Expressions for performance
Adding SQL Commands