Thumbnail

[bessebo]

For some reason I am not getting my thumbnail view to show up. This is what I do. I open up Crystal Reports 9 and I go to File, Options, Reporting, and I click on Save Preview Picture. Then I save the report. I then go into the CMC and go to Manage Objects and ensure that the enable Show Report Thumbnail checkbox. Then I run the report. I was of the understanding that if you went into Preferences and chose Thumbnail View that the actual report would show in the thumbnail view and not the generic bar chart with the lines underneath it. Can anyone tell me what I am missing?

Regards,
Bessebo

 

[rhinok]

One possibility:

In order for Save Preview Picture to work you must run the report in Crystal Reports Designer so that the image can be saved. Then you actually save the report. If you haven't done this, the image won't be available in CE.

 

[bessebo]

Actually I also had to go to Summary Info and click on Save Preview picture as well. Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Bessebo

 

[rhinok]

Sorry, I thought you had done this already. File|Options|Reporting only works as a global setting for any new report you create. If you set this option after the report has already been created, it won't do anything.

~Kurt

 

[bessebo]

You know, to be honest, I don't see anything redeeming about this thumbnail option. You can't really see what the report looks like so why not just open up an instance. I guess this is helpful if there are no instances run on the report yet...It just appears that you are saving images for no real reason..

Bessebo

 

[rhinok]

I agree. In my last two projects, I've standardized reporting so that every report has the same look, feel and cover page. If every report has the same cover page, why use thumbnails?

The real value would be if your reports had a very distinctive look to them. For example, I had a client who displayed an airplane engine on the cover of a report.

FYI, in the CE Launchpad, there's a sample Thumbnail client where the thumbnails are about 4X larger than they are in ePortfolio.

 

[MJRBIM]

I've been on projects where the management wanted the thumbnails so that they could see the chart format on the front page (eg. "Monthly Sales - Pie Chart", "Monthly Sales - Bar Chart", etc.). Even though the object name clearly identified the format of the chart they wanted the thumbnails.

For about 95% of my ePortfolio users I find that Action View is the best solution.

 

[bessebo]

Thanks for both of your input. I agree, Action View, is the best.

Regards,
Bessebo