How long does it take to become proficent in Actuate?

[wesw]

I am proficent in Crystal and Brio SQR now owned by Hyperion, I can also develop some in vbscript, vb etc. My first impression of Actuate is wow it is powerfull, but what a pain to do anything in. Does it get easier and how long does it take?

Thx

W.

 

[adarro]

If you use Actuate's ability to reuse objects and creating libraries, it becomes much easier. I used Crystal and Access Reports before Actuate. As a general rule, it has been my experience that if you can do it with a wizard in Crystal, then it will be about 60% faster than designing in Actuate. However, things that required heavy use of Crystals functions were 30% easier in Actuate, and some were not 'possible' in Crystal. (Without a C++ guru who could provide the fix all UDF).