When using conditional formatting to customize report output, the typical report property uses one of the simple data types to store its value. Many properties use the values True or False to turn them on or off. For example, the Suppress property uses True to hide an object and False to show the object. But there are certain properties that use pre-defined constants to set their values. You have to be aware of when to use these pre-defined constants so that your formulas return the correct data. Otherwise the Formula Workshop returns an error when you try to save it.

User Function Libraries (UFLs) are User Defined Functions which are made accessible (via a COM interface) to programmers, using the formula editor of Crystal Reports. Programmers are capable of writing Crystal Reports without ever having to open the formula editor, however those who have used the reporting capabilities of Crystal Reports will have come to know this tool with some appreciation for its power and usefulness. Put simply, the formula editor furnishes us with programmatic control at the field level, the ability to customize formatting, derive calculation, and places familiar programming constructs such as decision, iteration and evaluation at our fingertips. By the way, you can write code targeted for the formula editor in two syntaxes, namely Crystal and Basic (most VB programmers will probably go straight for Basic for obvious reasons).

Crystal Reports has become a very versatile application for generating reports, particularly if you use Visual Studio. This article will guide you through generating a report using this tool. It takes the wizard approach, and uses copious screen shots to keep you on track.

This white paper discusses Extensible Markup Language (XML) concepts, provides sample XML scripting, and illustrates the best methods to report off XML in Crystal Reports 8.5 and 9. This document applies to Crystal Reports 8.5 and later. Crystal Reports 8.5 and later allows you to report off XML data. XML is markup language much like HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).

Quickly and easily translate reports produced by Crystal Reports. Crystal Translator extracts all the translatable texts from your source report and allows you to translate them and obtain an immediate preview. You can also localize date, number, currency and fonts. The built-in translation memory database allows you to re-use your translations at each new version of your source report so you only have to translate what has changed. It includes also page size localization, text truncation detection, XLS import/export for outsourcing the translation and batch processing. Supports Crystal Reports 8, 9, 10, 11 R1 and R2 and VS .Net 2002, 2003 and 2005. Version 3.2 provides support for Vista and Crystal Reports 11 Release 2.