Crystal Reports: Advanced Tutorials
Review of the Basics / The Screen Layout
Subtitles of the Movie (Crystal Reports: Advanced / Review of the Basics / The Screen Layout)
Let's continue by talking about the screen layout within Crystal itself. Crystal Reports utilizes the Toolbar system, that means that we have multiple Toolbars that we can use on top of our screen. Each of these Toolbars correspond to the information that's found within the menu items, such as View. If I go next to Help, and do a right-click, I get a list of all the Toolbars that are available. Now remember the Toolbars can be moved. You will see dotted lines at the edge of each Toolbar. Now something to keep in mind, they are not just on the left hand side. For instance, I'm right in the middle of the screen, and I have a four point arrow. This four point arrow is on the handle of the Toolbar, so I can grab it, and I can drag it anywhere that is convenient for me. Very often when we want to reduce the amount of Toolbars that show, we take a Toolbar, and we add it to another line, we combine with another Toolbar, this gives us a bit more real estate for our report itself. If you're missing a Toolbar, again remember, a simple right-click takes you to the list of the Toolbars. The Toolbars are only shortcuts, always remember there are more commands under the Menu, than may appear on the Toolbar itself. The screen now is broken into different sections, Crystal uses panels such as the Design Panel, and Preview Panel. On the right hand side you'll see Explorers, at the moment I'm looking at the Field Explorer. With the Field Explorer, you will also find the Report Explorer, on the Toolbar, it's just to the right. When I select the Report Explorer, it now shows me each of the areas of the report. This includes the Report Header, Page Header, Detail Section, and Footers. If you're using groupings, fields, parameters, you will see each of these sections will appear. In the Preview Format, our Report Headers and Details, are abbreviated with just initials. In Design View, however, it actually lists the entire verbage, this way I can see it's the Report Header and the Page Header, the Report Footer. You can do more functions within Design View, than you can in the Preview, however the Preview is wonderful to see exactly how it's going to layout on a page. Now one of the advantages to the Report Explorer is it takes us to directly to a section. For instance, if I want to go to the Field Contact Name, I click Contact Name, and see how it takes me immediately to that field. If I'd like to go to the Header for the Company Name, now it takes me to the company name. This is a wonderful way of actually moving about. Now the Report Explorer shares that panel with the Field Explorer. On the bottom of your screen, is where you now see the Field Explorer. I simply click, and I'm back to the Field Explorer. The Field Explorer, of course, is going to allow us to see our information on the different fields. It'll also let us see our Special Fields. These two Explorers really come in handy with working with Crystal Reports. In Crystal Reports again remember, that items do occasionally get turned off. Always keep in mind that the View Menu will get you back to anything that might be turned off. You can see now that I have the Preview Panel turned on, because it's highlighted. If I select it, it turns it off, if I'm not sure what happened, I just go to View. Keep in mind also, that if you prefer, you could simply go to the edge of your screen, and you'll get a double arrow. I will now drag it open, this allows me to actually control how wide that particular panel is. I can do the same thing on the Explorer side. You can have the best of both worlds, panels opened, panels closed, set your screen up for whatever works best for you.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | Crystal Reports: Advanced |
| Author: | Lauri Sowa-Matson |
| SKU: | 34268 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-61866-016-9 |
| Release Date: | 2011-09-30 |
| Duration: | 7.5 hrs / 100 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
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