Post #20,227
12/4/01 3:56:04 PM
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Good quick-and-dirty guide to using Crystal Reports?
I've got the Complete Reference from Osborne, but at 750+ pages I think it might just be more than a days read. A new responsiblity of mine is pulling out reports from our helpdesk database and my boss said to me "With all your vast experience, this should be a snap for you." Little does he realize, my experience is only half vast.
:-)
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind;
Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #20,249
12/4/01 5:20:28 PM
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Surf a bit, and read some more.
Visit Google and other search engines and look for articles.
Crystal Reports is not that hard to learn, the hardness is in learning formulas and the limitations that CR has. For example there is no subreport on a subreport but the last version I worked on was 8.5 and Crystal Decisions (formerlly Crystal Reports) puts out versions very quickly.
Check out the [link|http://www.crystaluser.com/|Crystal Reports Users Group] read some articles at the [link|http://support.crystaldecisions.com/|Crystal Decisions Support page] or the [link|http://www.tek-tips.com/gthreadminder.cfm/lev2/4/lev3/29/pid/149/page/5|Tek Tips CR forum] if you get stuck visit [link|http://www.experts-exchange.com| The Experts Exchange]
If your employer was like my last one and watches web usage in hours, rather than business related research, do your research at home. It may take 3 hours or more in research to find out the basics of Crystal Reports from web pages.
Let me put it this way, if you can do reports in Microsoft Access, then Crystal Reports should be a snap for you. We even had some Quality Assurance people doing Crystal Reports and they had hardly any programming experience at all and came straight from the help desk before they got their QA jobs.
First thing is first, learn the SQL for the data source you are going to link to. This is important. Let the Report Wizard figuire it out for you at first, and then examine the SQL query it generates. The rest is just drag and drop. For advanced stuff you will need to use CR formulas, which use a language very much like object oriented Pascal. For that I thing you will need to read a book unless you have a background in Pascal.
I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
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Post #20,305
12/5/01 8:55:39 AM
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Re: surfing
I was hoping I might get a tip from someone with experience who has already done the research. Guess not. As far as time on the web; I work for a fairly decent place, nobody has ever said a thing about the amount of time I spend in the land of bits 'n bytes.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind;
Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #20,324
12/5/01 11:03:50 AM
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What do you want to know?
I don't exactly have CR in front of me anymore, but I'll try to remember what I did before I got laid off.
So what do you want to know?
I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
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Post #20,327
12/5/01 11:16:52 AM
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What I want to know
Do you know of a book I can buy that is more of a "this is how you use it" guide than the 10 pound reference work I now have? That's all, I just want a short (50 -100 pages) how-to guide suitable for an absolute beginner.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind;
Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #20,361
12/5/01 3:46:40 PM
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The "no-nonsense" guide to Crystal Reports
If there is enough need for one, I could write one for absolute beginners who don't want to buy a phone-book type book. Provided I have the time to do so and the money to get a copy of CR to do this with. I could either use the one that comes with the .NET CD/DVD, or the one that comes with VB.
I had to learn the hard way, using CR help files, CR knowledge base articles, web pages, yahoo Clubs, Expert's Exchange, and other areas to learn how to use CR.
Your best bet is to [link|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-4170068-1772661|Visit Amazon.com] and see what CR titles have the best reviews for easy to understand. I'd bet it is a "Dummies" book as the easiest to understand.
BTW what version of CR are you using?
I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
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Post #20,516
12/6/01 3:38:54 PM
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Re: Crystal Reports for Dummies?
[link|http://www1.fatbrain.com/Search/SearchResults.asp?vm=&ti=Crystal+Reports&au=&su=&pu=&isbn=|Yes indeed and more.]
But I have no idea how good or bad they are. Sorry.
Alex
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
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Post #20,526
12/6/01 5:36:14 PM
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Start with the report expert
Build a report using the expert, and investigate what you get. The experts are pretty good. They can probably generate 85% of the reports you'd need, depending on your database organization and business rules.
I'm not aware of any books (not to imply they don't exist, I just don't have any of them). I started with CR 5 and I'm currently using CR 8.5. I think that's the latest version. If you have specific questions, I should be able to help you out.
Brian Bronson
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Post #20,252
12/4/01 5:42:02 PM
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Umm there's always
the fav dodge for evaders of dread Book Reports, Classic Comics ???
Sorry.. some days ya just gotta bite a cat :-\ufffd
Hmmm this sounds like the O'Reilly Admin book for W2K Server: 748pp but.. the book is about..
mainly
the differences! between NT4 (which it assums you 'know', natch) and (er NT5) and every potentially intelligible paragraph is rendered massively obtuse by the inclusion of (the insane supposition that) maybe.. just Maybe! you might be wanting to
{use} AD! Can You Imagine?
Woulda paid an extra $20 for the AD-free 300 pp? version...
Hope yer Crystal Cathedral ain't like That :(
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