phone: (540)338-0194
email: ken@kenhamady.com

The Unofficial Guide to Learning Crystal ReportsĀ® Part I:


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.  The course was designed by Ken Hamady, a recognized expert in Crystal Reports.  Ken is an independent trainer and consultant and is not affiliated with Business Objects or SAP AG.  Most of his customers appreciate this independence.  Crystal Reports is a registered trademark of Business Objects and SAP AG.   This course can be taught on any version. 

This book is available for download (free).

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
Large text objects:
Overview
Inserting a Text Object
Editing and formatting a Text Object
Adding fields to a Text Object