Crystal Reports: Displaying the Euro Symbol

Now that the lira, mark, franc, and drachma are disappearing fast, we need to display a Euro symbol (€) on our reports. As we don’t have keyboards with this key, we need to use the equivalent four digit ASCII code.

To place the “€”as a currency symbol in your report, hold the ALT key down and type 0128 on the numeric key pad. Make sure NumLock is on.

This will work with any font with the Euro symbol (such as Arial or Times New Roman).

Of course, we still need the pound sterling symbol (£) and you can use Alt 0163 to display that. Alternatively, you can insert the symbol into a MS Word document then cut and paste into your report.

But what about other currencies? What about other symbols?

We could have ripped off an ASCII symbol chart from any of the many Websites that have one, and pasted it here. But aside from the ethical problems, that might not solve your symbol problem. You may need symbols that just are not represented in that table.

Consider how many characters exist in the languages other than English. Simplified Chinese has 7,500 of them. The ASCII table has 256 characters (including upper and lower case English alphabet, plus punctuation).

Consider the needs an engineering firm might have. Just for one project, it might have several times more symbols than the number that exist in the ASCII chart.

And you won't find higher math symbols on that table. That's why, for example, equations usually don't match the surrounding text in books or magazine articles.

Over the years, many solutions have been developed for this symbol problem. These include:

• Font formatting from within the application. This is the most common solution, and it works in most cases. Try this in Crystal Reports first, to see if you get the symbol you need.

• Character inserting from within the application. Also a common feature, and also a feature in Crystal Reports.

• Font sets you can buy. These consist of letters, characters, symbols, and "dingbats."

• Libraries of symbol artwork. You create or buy these. Instead of importing font characters into your document, you insert an image file.

• Equation features in applications. Microsoft Word, for example, has a tedious feature called Equation Editor.

• Applications for which symbol libraries exist or can easily be created. These include CAD software (e.g., AutoCAD), and programs like Visio.

Of course, if you are the Crystal Reports designer you really just want to be able to insert symbols as easily as you can insert a dollar sign by tapping SHIFT and 4. If you are going to be using the same symbol keys repeatedly, you could consider setting up a separate symbol keyboard that you have programmed and labeled with the symbols you need. Then use a KVM box to switch between that and your regular keyboard.

The symbol problem exists due to the sheer number of symbols. Fortunately, several solutions also exist. Which one to use depends on many factors, but the most important factor is probably going to be ease of use.

In Crystal Reports, you can:

• Format the font of a selected character.

• Insert characters from a character menu.

• Insert text objects directly from the Insert toolbar.

Try those before going out and buying characters you probably already have.

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.