A Note On Crystal Report 2011- Getting Started
1. What is Crystal Report?
SAP Crystal Reports is designed to work with your database to help you analyze and interpret important information. Crystal Reports makes it easy to create simple reports, and, it also has the comprehensive tools you need to produce complex or specialized reports.
2. What is the benefit of Crystal Report?
Create any report you can imagine
Crystal Reports is designed to produce the report you want from virtually any data source. Built-in report experts guide you step by step through building reports and completing common reporting tasks. Formulas, cross-tabs, subreports, and conditional formatting help make sense of data and uncover important relationships that might otherwise be hidden. Geographic maps and graphs communicate information visually when words and numbers are simply not enough.
Extend reporting to the Web
The flexibility of Crystal Reports doesn't end with creating reports — your reports can be published in a variety of formats including Microsoft Word and Excel, E-mail and even over the Web. Advanced Web reporting lets other members of your workgroup view and update shared reports inside their web browser.
Incorporate reports into applications
Application and web developers can save time and meet their users needs by integrating the report processing power of Crystal Reports into their database applications. Support for most popular development languages makes it easy to add reporting to any application.
Whether it's the web master in IT, the promotion manager in marketing, the database administrator in finance or the CEO, Crystal Reports is a powerful tool designed to help everyone analyze and interpret the information that's important to them.
3. A starting point to learn Crystal Report
Unzip the file and install it into Windows Platform.
4. Crystal Report’s User Interface
Application Window
Toolbar and Start Page
Menu Bar
Basic Toolbar
Formatting Toolbar
Reportting Toolbar
Start Page Items
5. Starting A New Blank Report Wizard
1) Click On “Blank Report” Link In the section “START A NEW REPORT” on the “Start Page”.
2) A new report with the title “Report1” is created.
- A Database Expert Dialog Window pops up.
- Notice a new Design Tab “Report1” and Field Explorer panel appear on the application window.
7. Database Expert Wizard
Database Expert Wizard Dialog Window pops up when a new report is created through the clicking of Blank Report item on the Start Page.
1) Click On My Connections. If this is the first time you run the Crystal Report application, you may get “no items found” message.
2) Click “Create New Connection”. Click “Access/Excel (DAO) Connection.
3) The file browser pops up. Browse for the sample database “extreme.mdb”. Click Finish.
4) After the database file is located, the connection is established and you may now choose the table to work with the report.
Working with Customer Table
Crystal Report User Guide Tutorial starts with the Customer Table connection.
1) Refer User Guide Book (crystal-report-xi-xir2_cr_usergde_en.pdf, if you have):
2) Select Customer table and click OK.
3) Customer table is now loaded into the Field Explorer panel. If it is not visible, check that the Database Fields icon is exploded.
8. Design Tab
Report Section
The Design tab is divided into five sections: Report Header (RH), Page Header (PH), Details (D), Report Footer (RF), and Page Footer (PF).
Short Section Names
If the Short Section Names check box is selected in the Design View area of the Options dialog box, then the Report Header, Page Header, Details, Report Footer and Page Footer section names will appear as RH, PH, D, RF and PF respectively. If this check box is not selected, follow these steps:
1. On the Filemenu, click Options.
The Options dialog box appears with the Layout tab active.
2. In the Design View area, select the Short Section Namescheck box.
3. Click OK to return to the report. Notice that the Section Name displays only Section Codes.
9. Browse Field Data
1) Highlight a field name by clicking the name once.
2) When you highlight a field name, you can review a subset of the values for that field as well as the field type and size by right-clicking the field and selecting Browse Data from the shortcut menu
10. Insert Field To The Report
1) Click the Customer Name field and drag it into the Details section of the
report. An object frame appears with the Arrow cursor as you drag the field onto
the report:
The Design tab should look similar to this:
11. Insert Multiple Fields To The Report
1) Selecting Multiple fields.
a. Click City
b. press [CTRL] key
c. Click Country
d. release [CTRL] key
2) Drag the fields to place them on the report. Notice the Multiple Field Mouse Icon
3) Multiple Fields will be automatically arranged on the report
12. Select Item on the report
1) Hover the mouse over the Customer Name Heading. The help label displays “Field Heading”.
2) Click Customer Name Heading. Notice that the status bar shows the name of the selected item.
3) Hover the mouse over the Customer Name Field. Notice that the help label displays the TABLENAME.FIELDNAME (FIELD DATA TYPE)
4) Click Customer Name Field. The status bar shows the description of selected field.
5) To deselect the item on the report, click the mouse pointer anywhere on the white area of the report.
13. Print Preview Report
1) Click on Print Preview Button on the Standard Tool Bar.
2) A new tab “Preview” appears.
