Subtitles of the Movie

In this movie we're going to explore the Crystal Reports XI Work Area. If you haven't already, go ahead and open up the same report we created in the previous lessons. This is the report that points to the Employee Table in the Test Database provided. As you can see the Work Area starts off with a Tab section up here. There is a Start Page tab, and a Report1 tab. One tab that is not grayed out is the current report that you happen to be working on and you can close it anytime by clicking on the X. You can also have multiple reports open at the same time, although it's not a good recommendation to have them running at the same time. There's also an optional Start Page tab. This is completely optional, in fact you can Close out of it right now and not have to deal with it. Now, below this Report1 tab, we have two more additional tabs: the Preview and the Design tab. Go ahead and click on the Design tab. Crystal Reports divides its report layout into several layers, or groups. The basic layer is the Report Header. This report header can be sized, shrunken, or even hidden from view with or without drill down. It can even be formatted, especially, but more on formatting later. The Report Header only appears at the top of the very first page of the report when it is printed or exported. The Page Header, the one right below that, is if you have multiple pages to report and you need the headers to follow the columns of data. That way if someone turns the page they don't have to remember which column belongs to which piece of data. This is especially important when dealing with complicated data sets. The next section, which is optional, is the Group Header and Footer sections. Now in our previous lessons we chose the EmployeeID as our group and so by creating this group we now have both Group Header and Group Footer sections. These also can be stretched, shrunken, and formatted. We also have the option of having more than one Groups, but we'll delve into that later. The next section is the Detail section. This is where the raw data from your table or view, or stored procedure, is going to be stored. You can either hide this or actually show the detail. The choice is up to you. It really depends on the type of report you're running. That section can also be shrunken, enlarged, formatted, same as any other section of this report. Now we come to the Report Footer. The Report Footer will show up at the very last page, at the bottom of the report. This is usually where the grand totals go, a final summary of all the detailed data that was pulled before it. Like all sections, it is treated, can be shrunken, enlarged, and formatted. The last thing you're going to see on this page is the Page Footer. This is going to appear at the bottom of every page that is printed or exported. In this case, this is usually where the page number goes. There are lots of options for formatting, by default Crystal Reports automatically puts a page number at the bottom right-hand corner of the report. Also in the Design View you have several options that come in handy, including these Guidelines. These help you align the fields so they all follow a straight line and export better and are easier to read on the eyes. These can be removed by clicking on them and dragging them off the page. They can also be placed again, by simply clicking on the Ruler Bars over to the left, or to the Guide Bars along the side. Go ahead and click on the Preview tab. The Preview tab is essentially a what-you-see-is-what-you-get screen shot of what your actual report is going to look like. As we can see, this report's a little bit disjointed, but we'll get into fixing it and formatting it and making it readable in a little bit. You can also access the same Group Headers, the Group Footers, and the Detail sections, including the Report Headers and Page Headers from this view as well. In fact, some people actually prefer to work in the Preview so they can see their changes as they are made as opposed to switching between the Design and the Preview tabs. All the options you have on your Design tab are also available to you here as well. As you learn more about this work interface, you can choose whether to work from the Preview or the Design tab.