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Crystal Basics: Crystal Dictionaries

This is based on the book, Crystal Reports: A Beginner’s Guide. For more detail and explanation, plus practice exercises, order the book here.

Have you every looked at a database someone else designed? Or maybe one you designed but haven’t seen for a while? What do those tables mean, and how are they related? What is linked to what, and what field names are present? What do the codes, acronyms, and mnemonics stand for? What VBA scripts are installed? Yikes!

People who’ve coded in BASIC or some other language that allows comments understand the value of having some kind of explanatory text. In Crystal Reports, this explanatory text exists as a Crystal Dictionary. As with other functions, this one has an Expert to guide you. When you’re done creating a dictionary, users can report directly from that and not have to learn about the underlying tables and relationships—often a time-consuming and painful task.

Here are three tips:

Create a master dictionary. Chances are you’ll have different categories or clearances of users—each with their own dictionary. By using a master dictionary that you update once when new fields are introduced or some other structural change occurs, you avoid having to add those fields to each dictionary. You simply make copies of the master and delete the links that don’t apply to a given group.
Verify your dictionary. Crystal Reports provides a tool for checking that the tables and fields are referenced and haven’t changed since the last update.
Distribute what you need. Don’t forget to include the Crystal Reports file (*.rpt) with the dictionary (*.dc5)! Since these are linked, it’s best to keep the structure the same. If at all possible, store the two in the same directory so when you send them the links don’t change as long as they are kept together.

Crystal Dictionaries improve the functionality of Crystal Reports by making them more user-friendly to folks who aren’t familiar with the underlying data. For even more functionality, you can use third-party programs, such as the ones available here.

This brings us to a related topic, English dictionaries (if you are preparing reports for English-speaking users).

Many report designers come from a technical background. English is not something they are particularly adept with. That's why you see misspellings of simple words like "its" as in "I like its color" but with an apostrophe inserted. That apostrophe changes the sentence to "I like it is color," which is gibberish. Don't confuse whose and who's, either....

Nobody says you need to go out and get an English degree. But if you're preparing something that decision-makers in your company are going to read, or that your customers are going to read, you need to be vigilant about your use of English. The tools that come with most software are insufficient for checking spelling, composition, and sentence structure. These are things you must learn.

They aren't hard to learn. You just need to decide to do it. Pick up an English textbook from any university bookstore, and set aside 30 minutes a day to study it. Pick up a manual of style, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, and adopt that as your style guide. The favorite reference of professional writers is The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. It's often just called Strunk and White. Get a copy. Memorize it.

This article is copyrighted by Crystalkeen, Mindconnection, and Chelsea Technologies Ltd. It may be freely copied and distributed as long as the original copyright is displayed and no modifications are made to this material. Extracts are permitted. The names Crystal Reports and Seagate Info are trademarks owned by Business Objects.