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Crystal Reports: Range in Page Footer

Further to our hint in the article about an index in the page footer, what about a range where the data aren't sorted?

For example, we wanted to show the highest and lowest value of a field’s values on the page. The solution is a slight variation on the solution we used for the index in the page footer:

A formula in the Page Header: (Supress)

WhilePrintingRecords; global numbervar Top:={table.field}; global numbervar Bottom:={table.field}

A formula in the Details: (Supress)

WhilePrintingRecords; global numbervar Top; global numbervar Bottom;

If {table.field}> Top then Top:={table.field};

If {table.field} < Bottom then Bottom:={table.field}

A Formula in the Page Footer:

WhilePrintingRecords; global numbervar Top; global numbervar Bottom;

"Range: " + Totext(Top,0) " to " ToText(Bottom,0)

This technique can be used only on the page footer. The page header can only see the record at the top of the page. It is not aware (yet) of the other records to be printed on the page.

More about footers

Speaking of footers, you can use two page footer sections for odd and even page footers.

If you look at any professionally prepared bound, double sided publication you will see the page footers are different on the odd and even pages. The Even numbered pages on the left of the binding often have the page numbers on the left, and other copyright information on the right, while the right hand, odd numbered pages have these fields the other way around.

The theory is that if you are looking for a specific page number, then you can thumb along the pages and see all the page numbers on the outer edge of the document.

You can achieve the same effect in your Crystal Reports by using a Page Footer a and Page Footer b section with the two layouts you want. Then conditionally suppress the sections using a formula of

Remainder(PageNumber,2)=0 //To suppress if page number is even

And

Remainder(PageNumber,2)=1 //To suppress if page number is odd

You might also want to use the section formatting option "Reserve Minimum Page Footer" to give you a little more room for data on the page.

And speaking of formatting....

This is based on the book, Crystal Reports 8.5: The Complete Reference. At one time, creating a good-looking report involved these steps:

Extracting data from a database and into a text file
Possibly manipulating those data in an intermediary program, like Excel
Importing those data into a word processor or desktop publishing program and cleaning them up
Formatting everything and playing with various settings until it looks OK.

With Crystal Reports, you can—in most cases—create reports directly from the database. This saves a lot of extra work—non-value added work that is terribly boring.

Crystal Reports has:

A full range of text formatting options
Text rotation
The ability to set object foreground and background colors
Settable unique borders
Drop shadows
Special fonts
Ability to include bitmapped images
Ability to draw lines and boxes around areas you wish to highlight
An actual highlighting feature that changes background colors conditionally
A host of conditional formatting options
A host of absolute formatting options
The Suppress Property, which allows you to hide information (such as zeroes or empty field items)—this is similar to Word’s ability to suppress unused fields in a mail merge. It also allows you to do some cool things with page headers and footers.

In addition, you can use Report Alerts that activate every time you refresh the report. This feature provides a separate dialog box to give you a report history. It’s got some automation to it to reduce the drudgery of digging through large report histories.

Formatting enhances the usability of your Crystal Reports. For even more functionality, you can use third-party programs, such as the ones available here.

All that said, here's a caution. Don't get carried away with formatting. A report is not the place to demonstrate how many formatting techniques you can use.

Instead, you want to use the formatting to accomplish such goals as:

Present a clean but compelling appearance.
Guide the reader's eye to what's important. That means very little highlighting or bolding.
Separate information or visually group it.
Make the report consistent with other company literature. For example, use company colors, company logo, and the official font (if there is one).
Create a different flavor or appearance for each type of report. For example, financial reports have a green border, sales reports have a salmon border, production reports have a blue border, and so on.
Show what has changed.
Highlight problem areas.

Avoid common color usage errors

Don't just add colors gratuitously. Think of them as spices. They need to bring out the flavor of the report, not bury it. And they need to work together. Some spices clash when used together, and so do some colors.
A common mistake with colors is to use large blocks of colored text on the page. For example, yellow on a black background. You get maximum readability with black text on a white background. You can use colored text to emphasize or to bring out headings (or subheadings). But when used for the main body of the text, it actually detracts from the report.
Don't use colored page backgrounds. When people try to print these out, the page becomes saturated with ink and paper jams result. With duplex printers, the problem is twice as bad.
Use contrasting colors. Many people can't see the difference between two closely related light blues, for example. Variations in printing also cause confusion. Then there's the issue of referring to the color. Bob in Accounting is discussing the report. He can easily ask Beverly compare the total that appears in dark blue text to the total that appears in dark brown text. But how can he refer to the total in tan versus the one in light brown?
Avoid red backgrounds. These irritate the eye.
Remember, color costs money. Use it where there's a return on that investment (no need to calculate ROI).
If there's no particular reason to use color, don't use 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.