Cover page and collapsing fields...

[steverbs]

Hi all.

I am new to Crystal Reports (we have purchased CR XI Developer) and have been asked to produce a PDF document that firstly contains a cover page detailing the contents of the PDF document, then follows a heavily formatted directory style report that is split into 2 columns (information flowing down the first, then the second column) and contains various fields that should only appear if there is data available. If there is no available data, then any following fields should be moved up to fill the place of the empty field.

Can anyone help me with this, or at least provide me with some references to reading material, such as online tutorials or books that will point me in the right direction? I have read numerous articles and even bought the Wrox CR for VS.NET book, none of which were very helpful.

Thank you in advance.

Stephen.

 

[kskid]

Your CD will have the User's Guide.

Basically, you cover page will go into the report header section.

Please post the following

Database and Connectivity
Sample data
Expected output or layout of what you need using the sample data

-LW

 

[lbass]

Here is the business objects paper on building a table of contents:

http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2011950.asp

To create a multicolumn format, go to the section expert->details->format with multiple columns->layout tab-set the width and gap->down then across->format groups with multiple columns.

Also in the section expert, check "Suppress blank section" for each report section.

-LB

 

[steverbs]

Thank you for your help. It is very much appreciated.

I did check the users guide and it contains a little too much information to read right through it, and I couldn't locate the desired information by index or search, so I thought I'd look elsewhere for a point in the right direction.

The database is MS SQL Server and it will be connected to via the Classes in the System.Data.SqlCient namespace in .NET. I'm not sure if posting sample data is a good idea as there are hundreds of fields accross multiple tables so it would be confusing to say the least.

The format is basically one cover page per report, this will detail, in large bold text, the type of information to be included (i.e. the country and industrial sector to be covered by the data). The following pages will list the data, ordered by organisation, in two columns per page. Each page, except the cover page, will have a header and a footer detailing the contents of the report (as per the cover page) and the page number respectively. That's basically it.