My customers use a wide variety of Crystal Reports versions.  Just this past week I fixed a report for a customer using CRv8.5, which was released somewhere around 2001. There have been 8 newer releases since then and most have included new design features. Sometimes I forget which versions are needed to do certain things. Often I have tried to update a report for a customer, only to realize that my Plan A won’t work in their version. Whenever I need to check when a specific feature was introduced, I refer to the front page of my site which has links to my reviews for each new Crystal release. These articles include the list of new features for each version. But, this still means scrolling through through several pages to find each feature.

To make the process simpler I have created a grid that lists all of the new features added in the past 15 years, roughly 50. For each of the features I show when it was introduced, and which versions that support that feature.  Not only will this help me identify which features I can use for specific customers, it will also help me answer questions about the value of upgrading. I can point a customer to the grid and they can quickly see all the features that have been added since their version.  They can then decide if those features are worth the cost of the upgrade.

You can check out the grid on my site.  The features listed in blue are the ones I use the most.