Dummies - Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies

Introduction

Crystal Reports 2008 is the latest in a long and celebrated series of report writers for personal computers. Crystal Reports is by far the bestselling report writer package in the world, even though you might not know it by name. (It’s been bundled with many of the most popular applications without being acknowledged by name. For example, a version of Crystal Reports is currently bundled into Microsoft’s Visual Studio .NET.) However, Crystal Reports 2008 is available as a standalone product. And if you want to produce a high-quality report quickly, Crystal Reports is the top choice to do the job.

About This Book

Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies is a book that gets you using Crystal Reports quickly and effectively. This book covers all the major capabilities of Crystal Reports but doesn’t bog you down in intricate detail. The objective is to give you the information you need to produce the types of reports that most people need most of the time. I also get into some out-of-the-ordinary report types that you might be called upon to generate on occasion.

Use this book as a handy reference guide. Each chapter deals with an individual feature that you might need at one time or another. Pull out the book, read the chapter, and then do what you need to do. In many cases, step-bystep procedures walk you through commonly needed operations. You might find it worthwhile to put the book beside your computer and perform the operations while you read about them.

Anyone who might be called upon to produce a report based on database data can profit from the information contained in this book. It’s also valuable for managers who might never produce a report but who oversee people who do.This book tells you what’s possible, what you can do easily, and what takes a little more effort to accomplish. This knowledge can help you estimate how long it should take to produce reports of various types.