Boxes in Crystal, arrggghhh!

[mebenz]

I am using CR 9 (yes I know, but we can't upgrade). Formatting a box in the headers and details etc, then using lines is so incredibly annoying. I have spent so much time getting all the boxes' lines to perfectly match up, but now one of them is looking like it is intersecting with a line, so it looks darker than the others. I move it a fraction down and then it prints across two headers on page 2. So annoying.

Is there any quick and easy way to align multiple boxes properly?

 

[dgillz]

Why not just format the object, with an outline? No need to draw or align boxes.

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"What version of URGENT!!! are you using?

 

[Madawc]

View > Zoom lets you enlarge the report for detail work. Does that help?

You can also use Guidelines (click in the ruler) or use the grid to get exact line-ups. Switch on or off depending on what you are doing.

Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Windows XP & Crystal 10

 

[PhilB2]

Here is a solution that works for me, that I tried after reading the post and replies:

I my Detail Section, I used lines, not boxes, and view | zoom | 400, turned off Align to Grid. I placed the top line as high as it could go in the Detail section, and used vertical lines where needed. I left out the bottom line.

I inserted the bottom line in my Group 2 Footnote (Group 2 precedes my Detail Section), as high as it could be placed.

 

[PhilB2]

Formatting the lines as dashed or dotted allows the lines appear to meet precisely even though they would need more precise positioning if they were solid.

 

[PhilB2]

Refering to using top, left and right lines in the section in which you would like the grid, and the bottom line in the Group Footer:

Turns out aligning the lines to the grid is a better idea, once the section is set up so that the top and bottom borders of the section are aligned to the grid.

 

[PhilB2]

Whoops! When I place the bottom line of the Detail grid in the Group Footer, it appears on the next page when the detail line above it is positioned at the page bottom.

 

[PhilB2]

What seems to work, although I encountered some strange effects for a while on the lower left corner of my grid, was to turn on Align to Grid and create lines to form the grid, all within one section.

 

[PhilB2]

I think the approach of inserting lines except for the bottom line, and placing the bottom line in the group footer, would work, if Print at Bottom of Page is selected in the Group Expert dialog box.

 

[PhilB2]

Sorry--regarding my prior post, I found out that Print at Bottom means don't print anywhere else.

 

[PhilB2]

I've found that using precisely positioned lines normally works, but when I tried suppressing fields when blank, the lines still showed up.

To get around this problem, I re-created my grid by carefully lining up fields and selecting borders.

(One possible disadvantage of using borders vs. lines is that, at least in Crystal 9.2, for lines one is able to select a couple of thinner (finer) grades than the default, and that is not true of borders.