In The Essentials of Crystal Reports®, you'll learn...
- How to take advantage of the full power of Crystal Reports by creating reports from scratch, and maintain total control over the look and feel of your reports
- How to quickly apply style templates to your reports that´ll take them from drab to dazzling
- How to use the built-in report wizards to create amazing reports with just a few mouse clicks
- How to export your report as a Word document, Excel® spreadsheet, HTML page or one of several other file types
- And much more
Businesses both large and small have at least one thing in common—and that´s data. Running effectively means that data has to work hard for you—and that´s where this incredible workshop comes in. In The Essentials of Crystal Reports, we teach you the steps for making your data “go to work”—and you don´t have to be an expert in databases to use it. You´ll learn to create reports that run the gamut—from complex reports containing huge amounts of information to simple reports that distill your information down to a single easy-to-understand summary. Stop being at the mercy of your IT department´s schedule when you need a report. Once you harness the business-reporting power Crystal Reports can supply, generating reports yourself is a whole lot easier!
WORKSHOP AGENDA
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Getting started with Crystal Reports+
- What Crystal Reports can do for you—the different reports you can create
- What´s new and different with today´s Crystal Reports
- Step-by-step instructions for installation: What you need to know to install the tools you want
- How to get a handle on the Crystal Reports user interface and how to customize it to meet your needs
- Why there are different report design environments and the importance of each
Selecting your database for seamless Crystal Reports integration+
- What a relational database is versus a flat database—uncover the advantage of being able to join tables based on related data
- Understand the different types of data sources that Crystal Reports can utilize
- Step-by-step directions for connecting to common data sources such as Access, SQL Server®, Excel and many more
- What to do when Crystal Reports doesn´t properly link your tables and it´s up to you to create links manually
- What a View is and how to use one as the foundation for your report
Creating different reports to display the information you need+
- How to use the different Report Wizards and what they can do for you
- How to create a report from scratch and the added benefits of doing so
- How to use the Record Sort Expert for customizing the order of your records
- Group Expert: The importance of grouping and how to use it productively
- How to create a summary report and other options for including summary information in your detailed reports
Using formatting to create a professional and effective report+
- How to modify the page orientation and margins of your report to adapt to the information you wish to display
- How to quickly apply templates and the trick you can use if you don´t get the look you expected
- Step-by-step directions to manipulate background colors to emphasize important data
- How to snap objects into place using grids and guidelines for a consistent and professional appearance
- The best methods to jazz up your reports by adding images, text boxes and other useful objects
- How to use the Highlighting Expert to apply conditional formatting that will allow you to dynamically format objects based on the criteria you select
Using hyperlinks, parameters, charts and formulas+
- Use hyperlinks to link to Web sites, e-mail addresses and files on your computer or network
- Take advantage of the Formula Editor to create, edit and check formulas easily
- Develop conditional formulas that involve “If … Then … Else” statements for better control of your information
- Insert a chart into your report to graphically represent summarized data
- Integrate Flash® files into your report to add an even greater level of professionalism, and wow those who view your reports
Exporting and publishing your reports for easy access+
- How to export your report in different formats, and why page-based versus record-based formatting is important to understand
- Why it´s vital to export to a Crystal Reports format based on the functionality you wish to maintain
- How to publish your report to your company´s Web server for Internet or intranet access
- Important considerations you need to know when exporting your report using the HTML format
- What format you should select if you plan on sending your report to others via e-mail
