The width of a section is the same as the width of the report that the section is in. You determine this value when you set your margins.

The height of a section begins at some default value. If that value gives you the appearance that you want, you can leave it the way it is. If you want a different height for a section, say to accommodate a larger font, it's easy to change, as described next.

Consider the vertical spacing between the lines of a variant of the Mexico Orders, with Running Totals report that I show you how to create in Chapter 6. This version of the report has a box around the fields and horizontal lines between the rows. You can add this effect to your reports in Design mode by using the Insert Box and the Insert Line icons on the Insert Tools toolbar. Figure 7-1 shows the result.

In addition to adding a box around the text, I added a horizontal line above each line of text. To do this, in Design mode, expand the height of the Details section by dragging down its lower boundary line. Make this easy adjustment by following these steps:

Make sure you don't drag a text box border line beyond the boundary line of a section. If you do, you get a weird result that you probably don't want.

Figure 7-1. An enhanced version of the Mexico Orders, with Running Totals report.

Figure 7-2. The cursor has changed to the sizing cursor.

To create a summary report in Chapter 6, I show you how to use the Hide (Drill-Down OK) function from the Section Formatting menu. Right-clicking in the area to the left of a report section displays a contextual menu. The options on the Section Formatting menu (as shown in Figure 7-3) provide you with a convenient way to make basic formatting changes to a section. Figure 7-3 shows the menu for the Details section, as seen in Preview mode.

The following list provides a brief description of each option in this menu:

Figure 7-3. Formatting changes you can make in the Details section.

Section Expert is the primary tool you use to change the formatting of a section. With it, you can set a number of options to determine what is displayed, how it's displayed, and what color the display is.

Common tab, Section Expert

Figure 7-4 shows the default settings for the Report Header section of the Common tab. (Each section has different default settings.)

Figure 7-4. The Common tab for the Report Header section.

Here is a short description of the options on the Common tab:

• Hide (Drill-Down OK) hides the section. However, drilling down displays the section's contents.

• Suppress (No Drill-Down) hides the section, and drilling down does not override the suppression.

• Print at Bottom of Page prints the section at the bottom of the page. This option doesn't make much sense for a Details section, but it's useful when applied to a Report Footer that otherwise could be printed near the top of the last page of a report.

• Keep Together prevents a page break in the middle of a section. This option is useful if a section contains a small number of detail lines that should be viewed together, regardless of where they happen to fall on a page.

• Suppress Blank Section closes the gap between the preceding and the following sections if a section is blank. If this option is not selected (checked), the empty space assigned to the section is on the report.

• Underlay Following Sections prints the section and then prints all the following sections right on top of this one. The function is often used to apply a watermark to a page. It can also be used to overlay two types of content, such as text and a chart.

Paging tab, Section Expert

Figure 7-5 shows the Paging tab of Section Expert.

Figure 7-5. The Paging tab for the Report Header section.

The Paging tab is a new feature of Crystal Reports 2008. The first option on this tab, New Page Before, is grayed out because the New Page Before option doesn't apply to the report header (which is what is selected in the figure). This makes sense because nothing comes before the report header. However, this option is active for the Details section and the Report Footer section.

The second option, Reset Page Number After, resets page numbering to the beginning of the sequence. For example, if you apply this setting to a Group Footer, the first page of the next group is numbered 1 rather than the number that would follow the last page number of the current group. You can read about groups in Chapter 6.

Gee. I guess I haven't really explained what a Group Footer is yet. Just as a Page Header is located at the top of every page and a Page Footer is located at the bottom of every page, a Group Header is located at the top of a group and a Group Footer is located at the bottom of a group. Group Footers are a great place to put totals or other summary information.

The third option, New Page After, prints the next section after the current one at the top of a new page.

The orientation options, portrait and landscape, are self explanatory.

Color tab, Section Expert

From the Color tab, you can specify a background color for a report section. Each section can have a different background color. To do so, use the Format Formula Editor to write a formula that specifies which sections have a specific background color. I discuss formulas in detail in Chapter 10. Figure 7-6 shows the Section Expert Color tab.

Figure 7-6. You can change the background color of a report section.

If you don't select the Background Color option, Crystal Reports doesn't give the background any color. Selecting the check box activates the drop-down list and basic color-choice palette, as shown in Figure 7-7.

Quite a few colors are available. If the standard choices don't meet your needs, click More to display a more-comprehensive Color palette. As shown in Figure 7-8, you can define thousands of colors from the Color palette.

Figure 7-7. Color tab, with pull-down list activated.

Figure 7-8. Select any hue, saturation, and luminance you want, as well as fractions of red, green, and blue.

Tip

Good design principles suggest that you select color schemes that are appropriate for the material you are presenting. Also make sure that there is sufficient contrast between the color of your text font and the background.

Using different colors for different sections

You can specify a background color for each section of your report. Depending on the effect you want to convey, you might leave all section backgrounds uncolored or maybe create a rainbow effect, with each section a different color. A more conservative approach is to use colored backgrounds sparingly but tastefully.

Note

Be aware of how your users will view your report. If you anticipate that your viewers will print the report on a black-and-white printer, don't go overboard with color. However, if users will view the report on computer screens or will print it on a color printer, take advantage of the expanded possibilities that color gives you.

Giving reports a classic banded look

You can simulate a classic banded look in your reports by using a conditional formula. To demonstrate this, follow these steps to add silver bands (or bands of any other color) in the background of the Big Orders report that I show you how to build and save in Chapter 5.

1. Open the Big Orders report and switch to the Design tab.

2. Right-click the Details tab and choose Section Expert.

3. In Section Expert, switch to the Color tab.

4. In the Sections area, select the Details section.

5. Select the Background Color check box.

6. 

   For this example, select Silver (or whatever color you prefer). Formula Workshop appears in Format Formula Editor: Background Color mode.

7. In the text area in the bottom half of the editor, enter the following formula, replacing color with the color you selected:

   If Remainder (RecordNumber, 4) In [1,2] Then color Else NoColor

   If you follow along with the example, the formula should be the same as the one shown in Figure 7-9. The comments show how to specify a color: in this case, crSilver.

   

   Figure 7-9. Adding the color banding formula.

8. Click the Save and Close button.

9. Click OK in Section Expert to dismiss it.

10. Switch to the Preview tab.

    You can see the effect of this change on the single-month Orders report, as shown in Figure 7-10.

This report brings back memories of the good old days (which you can read about in the nearby sidebar) and also makes it easy to correlate the Order Amount on the right with the Customer Name on the left.

Figure 7-10. The report on simulated banded paper.

Depending on the type of report you're creating, you might want to depart from the default positioning of groups within the Details section or of an entire section. You can do so in several ways.

Starting each group at the top of its own page

Suppose that you have a number of groups, and each group includes a large number of detail lines. Each group ends at some random place in the middle of a page, with the next group following immediately. For large groups, you might want to start each group at the top of a new page, which will provide a proper separation between groups.

Figure 7-11 shows the top of one page of Xtreme's Customer Report Grouped by State or District (USA). It has the last of many records for California, followed by the Colorado group.

For branch managers responsible for single states, it makes sense to have each state's records start on a new page. This makes it easier to distribute the appropriate information to the appropriate manager, while not revealing what is happening in other states.

Figure 7-11. The Customer Report page showing California and Colorado records.

Printing reports old school

Back in the early days of computing (the 1950s alternating green and white horizontal bands. and 1960s), computers printed reports on wide Each band was high enough to hold two printed paper that was sprocket-fed through electro- lines. The bands helped you keep lines of print mechanical line printers. The paper had straight when you scanned across the paper sprocket holes on the left and right edges and from left to right.

To make each group start on a new page, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the GH1 (Group Header 1) area to the left of the first group header on the report and choose Section Expert from the contextual menu that appears.

   Section Expert appears; refer to Figure 7-4.

2. On the Paging tab of Section Expert (refer to Figure 7-4), select the New Page Before option.

   On a report such as this one, which has a report header, selecting this option causes a page feed after the report header is printed on the first page, and the first group will appear at the top of the second page. Here's how to avoid this problem:

   1. When you select the New Page Before check box, also click its Formula Editor button to display the Format Formula Editor.

   2. In the formula entry area, type Not OnFirstRecord.

   This ensures that the first group always prints on the first page of the report.

3. Click the Save and Close button to close the Format Formula Editor and then click OK in Section Expert.

Printing totals at the bottom of a page

For a multipage report with subtotals for each group and a grand total at the end, you might want to print the grand total at the bottom of the last page. This is not the default format in Crystal Reports, which puts the grand total immediately after the subtotal for the last group, as shown in Figure 7-12.

Xtreme did not have many sales from West Virginia (WV), so the grand total prints near the top of the last page. Printing the total at the bottom of the page is another job for Section Expert:

1. Right-click in the area to the left of the Report Footer section and choose Section Expert from the contextual menu that appears.

2. On the Common tab (refer to Figure 7-4), select the Print at Bottom of Page check box.

   This puts the grand total at the bottom of the page, where it's traditionally located.

Figure 7-12. The grand total is near the top of the last page of this report.

In Chapter 6, I give you a brief look at summary reports and how to drill down into them to see the hidden detail they contain. By making a simple selection from the Section Formatting menu, you can choose to either display or hide a report's detail information. You can print a detailed report for one client, and then print a summary that hides the detail but shows the summary information in the group footer for another client.

For example, say you give a full, detailed report to a branch manager responsible for a single state but give a drill-down-able summary report for a national sales manager. In addition, though, you can also produce a summary report for which drill-down is not possible. And — bonus — you can produce all three types of reports from the same basic report.

To create a drill-down-able report, use the Hide (Drill-Down OK) option from the Section Formatting menu. Conversely, to create a similar summary report for which drill-down is not enabled, use the Suppress (No Drill-Down) option instead. With one report, you can satisfy the needs of three classes of users. Sweet.

These days, just about anything you can buy comes with an identifying bar-code. Barcodes are fantastically useful. In inventory applications, reading a product barcode when a product leaves a warehouse automatically decrements the units-in-stock tally for that item. Barcodes also eliminate a lot of mistakes that easily happen when a human has to enter a long, meaningless number via keyboard. Crystal Reports 2008 gives you the ability to convert not only numeric fields, but also text fields and date/time fields, into barcodes.

You might ask, "Why would anyone want to put a barcode into a report?" Good question. You wouldn't want to put barcodes into a sales report or a customer list. But, as I mentioned, barcodes are fantastically useful, and you can use Crystal Reports to generate them. Just put label paper into your printer and print away! Crystal Reports enables you to put machine-readable identifiers on your products at minimal cost, because you already have Crystal Reports and the computer it runs on.

To demonstrate the barcode function, follow these steps to add barcodes to the Product Price List I show you how to create in Chapter 2.

Because this sample report wasn't initially designed to contain barcodes, the placement is rather arbitrary. Crystal Reports chooses to locate the barcode in the first blank area it could find beyond the Product ID field. If you plan at the beginning to include a barcode in a report, allocate space for it after the field from which it is derived.

Figure 7-15. Select Barcode Type dialog box.

Figure 7-16. Barcodes have replaced the Product IDs in the report.

You'll use multicolumn reports in a variety of situations. One example is a report for printing three or four columns of mailing labels on 8½ × 11" label stock. Crystal Reports recognizes that people frequently want to print mailing labels, so it provides the Mailing Label Report Wizard for this task.

To create a report that prints mailing labels in multiple columns, follow these steps:

Hmm. The three columns of labels aren't laid out in the most readable way. To correct that, follow these steps:

Figure 7-20. A preview of the modified mailing labels.

Figure 7-20 shows an example of how the addresses would print on label stock. The labels look great, but they're in the order in which they were entered into the database — which means no particular order at all. That matters because the United States Postal Service (USPS) offers a postage discount on mass mailings of first-class letters if the letters are sorted by ZIP code when you bring them to the post office.

Sure, you could create your labels, apply them, and then sort your mailing by ZIP (ugh), but let Crystal Reports help you by printing your labels in ZIP-sorted order in the first place. That way, your labels are in order while you apply them.

Start with the report shown in Figure 7-20 and then follow these steps:

Figure 7-21. Mailing labels, sorted by ZIP code.