Issues with .NET version of Crystal Reports 1

[sparkyp]

Hi,

We are pretty new to CR - we are currently using the version bundled with Visual Studio 2003. Our report is basically a set of about 6 un-related charts. We have made sub-reports for these and put them on a main report. The issues we have are as follows:

1 - Somtimes the title of a chart partially overlaps the chart itself.
2 - Legend entries based on formula have an '@' in front of them.
3 - We have placed each sub-report in its own Report Header section. This seems okay and each chart appears on its own page. When we try to place something in the Page Header of Page Footer section though (such as Page N of M) it does not appear on each page, and only on the last page (which has no chart).
4 - Sometimes labels for pie-chart segments overlap each other.

There are some others but these are the main ones.

I would appreciate it if anyone knew:
A - Is there a resolution for any of these issues?
B - Would they be resolvable if we upgraded to the Developer License - presumably that would be CR version 11?

Many thanks for your help.

 

[lbass]

Not sure of the functionality in .NET, but ordinarily, you can select the title and format the font to a smaller size (in lower versions, you'd go into the Chart Analyzer). In XI, you just right click on it->format title. You can also adjust position, color, etc.

I wonder if you really mean the legend entries or the data axis title? Anyway in the chart expert in lower versions, there is a title page where you can uncheck the auto title and manually enter it. In XI, there is a text tab where you can modify the title.

Instead of using report header sections (where there are no page headers/footers), insert a group on a formula like:

whilereadingrecords;
1

Insert multiple group sections and place the subreports there. Suppress the report header. Page headers/footers are now available.

Pie chart labels--again, you can change the font, or there is an auto-arrange feature in the chart menu dropdown that might help.

-LB

 

[sparkyp]

LB,

Many thanks for your reply.

The advice regarding the Group section was spot on - that was exactly what I was looking for.

In the version we have (.NET) there is no way to control the layout of the components of the chart within the chart object. It is not a font size issue, since the vertical center of the title aligns with the top of the chart, so it will overlap no matter what the font size. It does not seem possible to vertically shrink the actual chart itself.

The fonts are giving us other issues - I have set them all to 7pt for the data axes, and yet on the final report they are both massive and blocky - I think they are being crudely expanded but I'm not sure why.

Finally, I do mean the legend and not the axes regarding the unwanted '@'. I can explicitly set the Title and Axes text where it puts an '@' by default. When a data series is based on a formula, the legend text is '@' plus the name of the formula, and this text is not editable. Changing the name of the formula directly changes the text, but since it adds the '@' to the formula name automatically, we cannot remove it.

CR seems like a nice product - it was very quick to get a chart from our database, and the formula stuff is nice. I seems very diffult to make the final formatting changes to make the report acceptable for the client though, which is a shame.

Thanks again.

 

[lbass]

I do think there is reduced charting functionality in the .Net version. I don't know for a fact, but you might get additional functionality through an add-on product from the company that does the charting for Crystal reports: CR.

http://www.threedgraphics.com/tdg/defaultc.asp

I don't have first-hand experience with any of their products, so can't personally speak for them.

-LB