can we create help systems and documentation inside a crystal report 3

[coderight]

Hi,

I'm using crystal reports 8.5 and crystal enterprise 8.5.

I would like to know whether it is possible to create help systems and documentation inside a crystal report.

The help system and documentation should include report fields definition,purpose of this report,parameters used in the report.

Thanks

 

[synapsevampire]

You can include whatever text you'd like within a report, or you can insert OLE objects such as Word documents.

It's probably easier to build a help system and link it in Crystal Enterprise than within a Crystal Report.

You can always use a subreport to pull in the appropriate field definitions, etc from a table too.

As for parameters uysed, etc., I create a separate Report Header section and suppress it, and then I place comments and technical information for developers within that.

You can also export to a Report Definition File which creates documentation for the report, then you might paste that in or link it.

Lots of options available, if you have specific requirements, post them, otherwise some combination of the above should work for you.

-k

 

[IdoMillet]

You can also use an "On Demand" Subreport and label it "Help".

hth,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[fredp1]

I use the approach that Ido mentioned.
I have a on demand Subreport that is the 'help'

I have the help in a html format in a db(SQl Server) and use the report name as the key. The sub then reads the html and displays it. That way I can maintain the doco without having to mod the Crystal Report.

I store the report name in the Summary field 'TITLE' (File, Summary Info) This is displayed on the rpoert and also used as a link to the subreport.
Create a variable and add the special field reporttitle.
Use this variable as the link to the sub.
In the sub I just point to the db where the help text is saved and format the field text interpretation under the paragraph formating as HTML.
So in the detail section is the field that has the help text.

In the help db, I have 2 fields, the report name and the help text as html. There is one record per report.
I use WORD to do the doco then export to html... cut and paste into the db.
Done.



Cheers
Fred

 

[coderight]

Thanks to all of you for the valuable inputs.

K: Can You please explain me
1.how to export a Report Definition File which creates documentation for the report
2. and then link this Report Definition File file to the report.

Thanks