Crystal Reports Essentials

Note: For additional questions and clarification, you may reach Bill Ramirez at bill@dynamicsedge.com or on his following contact details: Office- (510) 804-3600 & Cell- (415) 200-6969

COURSE OVERVIEW:

Begin creating dynamic reports with SAP Crystal Reports powerful array of tools. Pull data from various data sources such as Native, ODBC, XML, and much more, and start designing visually appealing reports and charts.

AGENDA TOPICS:

Unit 1- Create Simple Reports

• Begin with an introduction to Crystal Reports by exploring Design Window, the Preview Window, and toolbars.
• Manage resources with the three different Explorer components: Field Explorer, Repository Explorer, and Report Explorer.
• Learn how to connect to a data source before starting your new report.
• Place data fields onto a report and learn how to size and move them to customize the look and feel of the report.
• Use guides and guidelines to easily move, align, and snap objects in your report.
• Create and add text objects to a report.
• Set up the report to save automatically and preview your work by learning how to navigate your report with the Preview view.

Unit 2- Formatting Features

• Quickly create professional looking printouts of your reports by using one of the pre-formatted report styles in Crystal Report’s Template Expert.
• Format objects with the Format Editor and format object properties with the Format Painter.
• Insert lines and boxes to reports and format them to create professional looking reports.
• Increase the visual appeal of your report by adding and formatting pictures, logos, or other graphics.
• Work with the Page Commands to change the page layout and define margin settings for a report.
• Add fields within Text Objects and quickly combine multiple fields with text.
• Format individual fields, parts of an object, or an entire object to emphasize or stylize certain sections of your report.
• Utilize various special fiends in Crystal Reports to record and print useful information such as date and time, page numbers, titles, and comments and refresh dates.

Unit 3- Selecting Specific Records

• Use the Select Expert to quickly filter specific records from your database.
• Explore the flexibility of utilizing multiple criteria in the Select Expert to include more data or further limit data in your report.
• Learn about the language behind Crystal Reports by taking a look at the selection formula and making minor modifications to a formula used to select records.

Unit 4- Grouping and Sorting Data

• Learn when and why to group and summarize records in a report.
• Easily create and define groups to produce well organized, easy to read reports.
• Organize records by sorting them in ascending or descending order, creating a group name, creating multiple groups in a report and modifying these groups.
• Utilize one of the Smart Navigation features, Group Tree, to easily navigate large reports.
• Sort records within a group in a meaningful sequence.
• Learn how to group on dates and times and subdivide by day, week, month, quarter, or other subdivisions.
• Summarize data for certain groups by performing various calculations such as Summary, Subtotal, and Grand Total.
• Calculate percentages of a group within a larger group, or calculate the percentage of each group that contributes to the grand total.
• Arrange groups dynamically by using the Group Sort Expert to design reports to quickly show groups in a specified order.

Unit 5- Combining Multiple Tables

• Become well versed in the concepts of a relational database by defining basic terms and concepts of how the data for a report is structured and organized.
• Learn the importance of linking and how to link tables in Crystal Reports.
• Add more than one table to a report and link them using the database expert.

Unit 6- Creating and Using Formulas

• Understand the immense power of formulas and learn how to manipulate fields to evaluate, make calculations, or transform data.
• Easily create formulas using the Formula Editor to add fields, functions, and operators to formulas.
• Perform simple number calculations to gain familiarity with working with formulas.
• Manipulate date fields to add and subtract dates and display individual parts of a date.
• Work with string formulas to trim fields, select specific portions of a field, convert numbers and dates to text, concatenate and perform other text functions.
• Make decisions and perform different operations using the If…then…Else statements in formulas
• Quickly navigate through long or complex formulas by inserting bookmarks to identify frequently edited parts of a formula, major sections of a formula, or the beginning of if…then…else statements.

Unit 7- Conditional Formatting

• Format sections by using the section expert to insert page breaks, underlay sections, and various other section formatting.
• Format sections to only apply when certain conditions are met.
• Conditionally format individual fields such text font, background color, or borders, of a report to change under certain conditions.
• Learn how to set multiple conditional formats to an object in a report.
• Perform complex data comparisons by using formulas to conditionally format fields other than numbers.

Unit 8- Creating Summary Reports and Charts

• Create easy-to-read, one page summary report for viewers to quickly understand only the necessary information.
• Apply the drill-down feature to view the summary report in detail and understand the data supporting the summary.
• Illustrate information by creating meaningful graphs quickly with the Chart and Graph Expert.
• Edit, modify, and format graphs and its individual objects to effectively display your data.

Unit 9- Exporting Your Reports within Your Organization

• Export reports to suitable formats and destinations to allow viewers to see your report in PDF format, HTML format, and many others.
• Format reports for the web by exporting to HTML format and viewing them with a web browser.

Unit 10- Using the Report Wizards

• Walk through step-by-step instructions from one of the four Report Wizard’s default formats to quickly create reports.
• Use the mailing label wizard to create a mailing label report.
• Create a mailing label report using a wizard. Create mailing labels using the mailing label wizard