Is it just me or did Crystal create the most illogical, poorly organized, support area on the face of the earth? I'm not here to flame the company or it's products, but I would just like to list a few grievances/suggestions.
Case Study: I needed to find some examples of Crystal Reports 8.5 on the web using ASP.
1. I went to and clicked on support.
2. I searched the knowledge base for "asp". All I found were 1000's of documented ASP errors.
3. I searched the technical briefs for "asp". No luck.
4. I searched updates & samples for "asp", still no luck.
5. At this point I gave up and went to the forums.
6-20. After trying about 15 different search terms I finally found a post which directed me to search for "aspxmps85.exe" in the updates search.
21. It found one result, I clicked, on the link.
22. Another window poped up.
23. I clicked on the link there.
24. A new page opened. This time when I clicked the link it actually began the download.
25. This was a self-extracting executable containing about fifteen other self-extracting executables. I had the added pleasure of extracting them one-by-one before I was actually able to run the code.
Other problems:
1. A large portion of the documentation is in PDF format. Why? This makes it very hard to browse and search.
2. Why are there 4-5 different search engines on the site? How do I know which one is used for what?
3. Often I would find help articles like this:
Go to
and search for
filename.exe
And its not a hyperlink. I have to open up notepad (!) copy/paste the url, copy/paste the filename, then paste the url back into the browser, then paste the filename into the search box. Why not just make this a hyperlink?
4. Why do I have to use wildcards for search terms? This is a non-standard procedure on the web, as far as I know.
----------------
I have put all this into an email and sent it to Crystal. Hopefully they will listen to my suggestions.
Case Study: I needed to find some examples of Crystal Reports 8.5 on the web using ASP.
1. I went to and clicked on support.
2. I searched the knowledge base for "asp". All I found were 1000's of documented ASP errors.
3. I searched the technical briefs for "asp". No luck.
4. I searched updates & samples for "asp", still no luck.
5. At this point I gave up and went to the forums.
6-20. After trying about 15 different search terms I finally found a post which directed me to search for "aspxmps85.exe" in the updates search.
21. It found one result, I clicked, on the link.
22. Another window poped up.
23. I clicked on the link there.
24. A new page opened. This time when I clicked the link it actually began the download.
25. This was a self-extracting executable containing about fifteen other self-extracting executables. I had the added pleasure of extracting them one-by-one before I was actually able to run the code.
Other problems:
1. A large portion of the documentation is in PDF format. Why? This makes it very hard to browse and search.
2. Why are there 4-5 different search engines on the site? How do I know which one is used for what?
3. Often I would find help articles like this:
Go to
and search for
filename.exe
And its not a hyperlink. I have to open up notepad (!) copy/paste the url, copy/paste the filename, then paste the url back into the browser, then paste the filename into the search box. Why not just make this a hyperlink?
4. Why do I have to use wildcards for search terms? This is a non-standard procedure on the web, as far as I know.
----------------
I have put all this into an email and sent it to Crystal. Hopefully they will listen to my suggestions.