1. Crystal Reports Simple Solutions to Every Day Problems Presented By: Project Leadership Associates August 22, 2008

2. Introductions Overview Scenarios / Solutions Questions Agenda

3. Founded in 1998 – it’s our 10 year anniversary! Headquartered in Chicago, with over 150 consultants/ employee-owners Strong focus on the mid-market, along with expertise in key verticals such as legal and financial services Project Leadership Associates, Inc.

4. When was the availability of Crystal Enterprise announced? Trivia Question

5. Today’s presentation will focus on applying simple solutions within Crystal Reports to help the reports be more user friendly. We will be using the Crystal Reports Extreme database to present five scenarios that can be used in every day report development. The sample report will be utilizing sales data from a bicycle shop. Overview

6. Problem –A report has many complex formulas and data definitions. The report developer is trying to find a way to display this information within the report. Solution –Create a ‘Hover Over Help Box’ within the report to define the data and formulas. Scenario 1 - Hover Over Help Box

7. To display Help Box text when hovering over fields: 1.From the Toolbar, select Format > Format Field 2.Select the Common tab 3.Select the formula box to the right of the Tool Tip Text 4.Type the text and/or insert a field to be displayed as the tip 5.Click Save and close in the Format Editor Scenario 1 - Hover Over Help Box (2)

8. Problem –A report has multiple lines with many detail lines of data. The report developer would like to distinguish the lines to make it more readable. Solution –Apply Detail Banding to the report to highlight every other line with a slightly different color to assist the report consumer in analyzing the data. Scenario 2 - Detailed Banding

9. To display alternating background colors to a detail section: 1.Create a Running Total field using the Field Explorer > Running Total Fields 2.Create a name for the field 3.Select the detail field to be summarized 4.Set Type of summary as ‘Count’ Optional: Set Reset On change of group to start the banding sequence over with each group 5.Select OK 6.On the Toolbar, select Report > Section Expert 7.Select the Detail Section 8.Select the Color tab Scenario 2 - Detailed Banding (2)

10. To display alternating background colors to a detail section continued: 9.Select the formula box 10.Enter the following formula to have two alternating color backgrounds in the detail section o f the report: If Remainder({#RT_Order_Dt_Ct},2) = 0 Then crSilver Else crNoColor –Note: The field #RT_Order_Dt_Ct is the running total field previously created. 11.Click Save and close on the Formula Workshop 12.Click OK on the Section Expert Scenario 2 - Detailed Banding (3)

11. Problem –A report has multiple lines with many detail lines of data. The report developer would like the report details to be more consolidated and print on less pages. Solution –Apply the same logic used for Mailing Labels to the Detail section to print data across and then down the page. Scenario 3 – Mailing Labels

12. To display detail lines with multiple columns: 1.On the Toolbar, select Report > Section Expert 2.Select the Detail Section 3.Click Format with Multiple Columns 4.Select the Layout tab 5.Enter the desired width for each column of data 6.Click Ok 7.Select the Color tab 8.Select the formula box Scenario 3 – Mailing Labels (2)

13. To display detail lines with multiple columns: 9.Enter the following formula to highlight the middle section of data: If Remainder({#RT_Order_Dt_Ct},3)=2 Then crSilver Else crnocolor –Note: The field #RT_Order_Dt_Ct is the running total field previously created. 10.Click Save and close on the Formula Workshop 11.Click OK on the Section Expert Scenario 3 – Mailing Labels (3)

14. Problem –A report has summary data and detail information for multiple groups; however, the report consumers only need to view the details for most current month and summary level data for all other months. Solution –Add a formula to your Group Level Drill Down to view detail only for most recent month and summary data for all others. Scenario 4 - Group Level Drill

15. To display sections of the report based on field criteria in the report: 1.Create a formula field using Field Explorer to display the year and month of the data ({@Order_Date} = Date(Year({Orders.Order Date}),Month({Orders.Order Date}),01)) 2.From the Toolbar, select Report > Section Expert 3.Select the detail section to be suppressed Scenario 4 - Group Level Drill (2)

16. To display sections of the report based on field criteria in the report: 4.Select the formula box to the right of the Suppression (No Drill-Down) 5.Use the DrillDownGroupLevel function to suppress the section and allow drilling on the section ({@Order_Date} <> maximum({@Order_Date}) and DrillDownGroupLevel <> 1) 6.Click Save and close in the Formula Workshop. 7.Click OK on the Section Expert. Scenario 4 - Group Level Drill (3)

17. Problem –A report crosstab includes monthly data for multiple years. The report is displaying the months alphabetically instead of January – December. Solution –Using Group Options, create a cross tab that orders by month number and displays month name. Scenario 5 - Cross Tab Sort

18. To create a year-over-year / monthly cross- tab report: 1.Create a formula field for 'Month Display' defined as follows MonthName(Month({Datefield})) 2.Create a formula field for 'Month Number' defined as follows Month(Month({Datefield})) 3.Insert a cross-tab into the report 4.Using cross-tab expert, create rows for each year 5.Create columns for ‘Month Number’ Scenario 5 - Cross Tab Sort (2)

19. To create a year-over-year / monthly cross- tab report: 6.Click on Group Options in the Cross Tab expert window 7.Select Options Tab 8.Click Customize Group Name Field 9.Click Use Formula As Group Name 10.Select the formula box and select the ‘Month Display’ field 11.Click OK to close the Cross Tab Group Options window 12.Select field to be summarized 13.Click OK to close the Cross Tab expert window Scenario 5 - Cross Tab Sort (3)

20. Scenario 1 –Hover Over Help Box to display metadata Scenario 2 –Detailed Banding to improve report viewing Scenario 3 –Mailing label to display multiple data columns Scenario 4 –Group Level Drill to display recent detail data Scenario 5 –Cross tab for custom sorts In Summary

21. Questions

22. And the Winner is… March 6, 2001 Source: http://www.canadait.com

23. Contact Information Dacia Heck Project Leadership Associates 200 W. Adams Street, Suite 250 Chicago, IL 60606 dheck@projectleadership.net Phone: 773.469.3100