CRXI: exporting to word (.rtf)

[glyrocks]

Using Crystal Reports XI, I've recently finished a relatively lengthy report for a client. At the client's request, that report is exported to .rtf (and then saved as a .doc). However, it seems that when CR exports to MS Word (2003 Pro) it exports everything as an individual graphic field (e.g. a box, a text box, single line). This doesn't bother me much, but the client doesn't like it because they can't add or remove rows or columns to the .doc. Being individual graphic pieces instead of interconnected cells, they can't do much with the data beyond looking at it.

I'm looking for any suggestions on how to best get this data into a correctly formatted table in a MS Word document. MS Word is preferred, but an Excel file would suffice. The formatting isn't that complex, it just has to be exact. These reports come out anywhere from 35-150 pages, so if we can't export them more or less complete we'll have to find another solution. Any ideas would help... we're looking at losing a lot of work if we can't get this data into editable rows and columns. Thanks a lot!

dylan

 

[samiam07]

You're right, the Word option is horrible.

Use the MS-Word - Editable(RTF) option under Export>Format.

 

[elsenorjose]

This is one of the most frustrating requirements IMHO. Use Crystal to retrieve data to export to another format for further manipulation. I try to tell my clients that the whole point of CR is to generate reports, intelligence, information...not data. For data retrieval, use SQL

Enough venting...

Have you already tried exporting as Excel or CSV? If not, CR does have that option.

Also, if you really just need an editable data source, have you tried just writing a SQL query and exporting the results in Excel or CSV?

 

[glyrocks]

We were hoping to take advantage of all the auto-formatting (e.g. headers, footers) in CR. Returning and exporting the raw, unformatted data isn't much of a problem. The reports I've created already actually work quite well for that. It's just the formatting... Without taking advantage of what I've already asked CR to do, I have to find some other way.

Right now, that 'other way' is copy/paste and manually formatting the tables in Word, which sucks. A lot. But I suspect I can write macros to do most of the work. It's just a shame to have spent all this time fine-tuning reports to do exactly what the client asked for only to have them ask for one more thing that changes the entire structure of the project. C'est la vie! As always, thanks for the suggestions!

dylan