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All things good to know, are difficult to learn
 
Institute of IT Trainers - Freelance Trainer of the Year 2006 & 2009
Liverpool Business Connect Member
  Maximum Impact Solutions Limited - Reporting Solutions, Creating Answers
Reporting Solutions - Creating Answers, Crystal Reports, Dashboarding (Xcelsius) & SQL Reporting Services

Crystal Reports, Xcelsius (Dashboarding) and SQL Reporting Services Blog

Welcome to our blog of scribbles and musings designed to share with YOU our insights, knowledge and experience from training, designing and writing reports using Crystal Reports, SQL Server Reporting Services and Crystal Dashboarding (Xcelsius) for our customers.

Please contact us with any questions, queries and/or issues that may have arisen from your use of Crystal Reports, SQL Reporting Services and/or Crystal Xcelsius in response to out blog posts.

We love nothing better to be challenged by something that makes others scratch their heads Feed ME!!!!

13
April

How Do I Add More than on Table on a page from the same data in SSRS?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services report writing project there was a need to have 3 tables from the same dataset object on the page.

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25
February

How Do I Sort Field with Null Values in SQL Server Reporting Services 2019?

The client was creating a report in SQL Server Reporting Services 2019, and wanted to sort fields that contained Null Values.

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18
June

Why is Hide Duplicates in SQL Server Reporting Services Not Working?

A client contacted me recently, whose report displayed an extra blank line when hiding duplicates in the SSRS report

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13
May

How Do I Conditionally Format Cross-tabs in Crystal Reports?

I have had a number of clients ask me the same question recently, "How do I conditionally format cross tabs in Crystal Reports?"

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04
March

How Do I Add an Extra Blank Page to my Crystal Reports?

During a recent Crystal Reports training session, one of the delegates asked "How do I add a blank extra page at the end of the report?"

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21
January

How Do I create a bespoke NoRowsMessage?

I had a client contact us asking "How do I create an customised NoRowsMessage?

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19
November

Why Does my PDF Export have Additional Blank Pages in SQL Server Reporting Services?

One of the most common questions clients ask me when exporting SQL Server Reporting Services reports to PDF is "Why are there extra blank pages?"

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15
October

Why is My SSRS Reports Still Showing the Old Data, even after the Stored Procedure has been Updated?

One of my clients contacted me with a problem that when the stored procedures was updated the reports still returned the original data.

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17
August

How Do I Exclude Blank Lines in Concatenated Fields in SQL Server Reporting Services

During a SQL Server Reporting Services consultancy session, the client asked "How do I exclude blank lines in a concatenated address field?"

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31
July

How Do I Apply Conditional Formatting to a Bar Chart in SQL Server Reporting Services?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services workshop, a delegate asked "How do I apply conditional formatting to a bar chart?"

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11
July

How Do I Hide Parameters in a Crystal Reports 3rd Party Viewer

A client contacted me asking "How do I hide parameters in a Crystal Reports 3rd Party viewer?"

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13
April

How Do I Insert a Page Break After a Specific No of Rows in a Table in SSRS?

I recently have had a couple of SQL Server Reporting Services clients asking, "How Do I add a Page Break After x No of Records in Tablix Objects?"

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08
February

How Do I Display Bespoke Values on SSRS Graph Data Points?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services training session, one of the delegates asked "How do I add different values to the data points on the graph"

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15
January

How Do I Create a Cross Tab Ratio Calculation in Crystal Reports XI

During a recent consultancy a client asked "How Do I calculate a ratio of two summary fields in cross-tabs"?

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19
December

How Do I Quickly Select Multiple Crystal Report Objects, except Lines and Boxes?

I a currently in the middle of writing a beast of a Crystal Report, with multiple fields, boxes and lines, in multiple sections, and needed a way of efficiently selecting these objects.

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17
October

How Do I Sort a Memo Field in Crystal Reports?

During a recent consultancy, a client asked "How does I sort a memo field?"

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09
June

How Do I Prevent Having Spacing in my Addresses in my Crystal Reports

Most of the queries I seem to be answering recently is issues when designers are creating reports with address fields, with missing data.

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04
January

How Do I Remove the Extra Pages on a Cross Tab Report in Crystal Reports?

When you create a Cross Tab in Crystal Reports, you may notice all the extra pages when run it.

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20
October

An issue with Exporting Crosstab to Excel from Crystal Reports

A client of mine recently contacted me about an issue when then exported a Conditionally Formatted Cross-tab to Excel.

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26
August

How Do I a Set Number of Records per Page in SSRS?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 report writing project, the client wanted a report that displayed a specific number of records per page.

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08
June

How Do I Display a Block Address on One Line in Crystal Reports?

During a recent training session, one of the delegates asked "How do I display the block text of a field on one line?"

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24
May

How Do I Stop Images Scaling

This was a bit of a funny one which had a client scratching their heads "How Do I Stop Images stored in a table scaling in Crystal Reports?"

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13
March

What is the function of CurrentFieldValue in Crystal eports?

During a recent Crystal Reports training session one of the delegates asked "What is the advantage of using the CurrentFieldValue?"

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13
March

A Question of Rounding

One of my clients contacted me about a rounding issue in Crystal Reports

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13
February

How Do I ensure my Conditional Suppression works in Crystal Reports?

During one of my consultancy session, I had a client, whoso conditional suppression formula returned unexpected formatting, when the report ran.

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04
August

How Do I Create a Banded Report with Grouped Tables

During a recent training course a delegate asked "How do I create a banded report in a grouped table?"

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13
June

How Do I Display Zeros instead of Blanks in a Matrix in SSRS 2008?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 report writing project, the client wanted all the spaces of the matrix, to be replaced with zeros.

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13
May

How Do I Sort by Financial Year?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 report writing project, my client wanted the budget vs actuals charts and matrix months sorted by financial year instead of calendar year.

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03
July

Tip: Making all the Page Header Section Heights the same in SQL Reporting Services 2008

A number of clients have asked "How do I ensure that all the page headers of the report are the same height in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008?"

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25
June

How Do I Print Picture Metafiles in Crystal Reports Correctly?

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a number of clients asking the same question "How Do I Print Picture Metafiles (*.wmf and *.emf) extension files correctly"? in various versions of Crystal Reports

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23
May

How Do I Display Double Lines in Tablix Items in SQL Reporting Services?

During a recent SQL Reporting Services 2008 (SSRS 2008) report design project, the client needed to display the totals within a Tablix report item with bottom double line border

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07
March

How Do I Extract Characters from within a String Field in SQL Reporting Services 2008?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 report design project, one of my clients needed to extract some text after the last instance of a specific character of a string field.

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25
February

How Do I Remove the Extra Pages in SQL Reporting Services 2008?

I have had a number of clients of the past few months all asking the same question, "How Do I Remove the Extra Pages in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008?"

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14
February

How can I Add Multiple Conditions to the Visibility Property in SQL Reporting Services 2008?

During a recent SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 (SSRS 2008) report design project, a client asked "How can I Add Multiple Conditions to the Visibility Property of a Report Item?"

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24
January

How Do I Add Text Summary and/orGroup Name Fields without Losing the Drill Down Functionality in Crystal Reports

I have had a number of customers ask me about how they can retain the drill down functionality, when the Group Name fields and/or Summary fields are added to some text, in various versions of Crystal Reports

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08
January

How Do I Remove Duplicate Records in Crystal Reports?

I have had a number of clients with the problem of their datasets returning duplicate records in Crystal Reports.

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12
December

How Do I Create an Index for a Dynamic Parameter in Crystal Reports 2008?

Recently a client had an issue with creating a dynamic parameter based on the Customer Name field returning over 3000 values, and the filtering feature only worked if one was in the correct page.

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30
November

How Do I Display a Number as the Same Number of Characters in Crystal Reports?

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a number of clients asking "How Do I Display a Numerical value in a field as the same number of characters?" in various versions of Crystal Reports

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01
November

How Do I Display the words N/A for Zero Summary Values in a Cross Tab in Crystal Reports 2008?

Over the last couple of Crystal Reports 2008 training sessions a number of delegates have asked the same question, "How Do I Display the words "N/A" for Zero Summary Values in a Cross Tab?"

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24
October

How Do I Highlight the First x No of Rows in a Grouped Report in Crystal Reports 2008?

Over the last couple of weeks I have been asked a number of times by clients "How Do I Highlight the First x Number of Records in a Group Report in Crystal Reports 2008?"

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10
July

How Do I Start the Page Numbering on the Second Page in Crystal Reports?

I have had a number of clients recently ask me "How do I start the page numbering on the second page of the report, displaying Page 1, in Crystal Reports?"

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03
July

How Do I Add Interactive Sorting in Crystal Reports 2008?

Over the last couple of weeks I have had number of clients ask me "How do I apply an interactive sort to reports in Crystal Reports 2008?"

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21
May

How Do I Create a TopN Cross Tab Report in Crystal Reports XI?

During a number of recent Crystal Reports XI training sessions, I have been repeatedly asked "How Do I Create a TopN Cross Tab Report?"

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17
May

How Do I Create a Gradient Shaded Background Report in Crystal Reports 2008?

A client recently asked me I how do I create a gradient shaded background effect to a report, using Crystal Reports 2008?

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14
May

How Do I Suppress a Blank Sub-Report in Crystal Reports 2008?

One of my clients emailed me recently, asking how do I suppress a sub-report that does not return any records, in Crystal Reports 2008?

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20
March

How Do I Display ALL for Multi Value Dynamic Parameters in SQL Reporting Services 2008 R2?

During a recent training workshop I was asked the question how do I display the words "ALL", when the Select All option of an multi value dynamic parameter is checked in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2?

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20
February

How Do I Only Display the Last 2 Records of a Group in Crystal Reports 2008?

During a recent training session a delegate asked how does one only display the last two records for a group?

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23
January

How Do I Plot a Target Value on a Chart in Crystal Reports?

Over the last month I have been asked a number of times how do I plot a target value on a chart in Crystal Reports.

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09
January

How Do I Add a Target Line to a Chart in Crystal Reports 2008?

Over the last month or so I have been asked a number of times how do I add a target line to a chart in Crystal Reports 2008.

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07
November

How Do I use the MOD Function with Hidden or Suppressed Rows of Data in Crystal Reports?

Earlier this year I added a couple of blog posts, about using the MOD function to create a banded report. I had a couple of comments, pointing out that although the formulas were correct it did not take into consideration any hidden or suppressed rows of data, in Crystal Reports.

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02
August

How Do I Display the Description Field of a Dynamic Parameter in Crystal Reports?

Over the last couple of weeks I have been asked a number times how do I display the description field values of the selected dynamic parameter field in Crystal Reports?

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28
July

How Do I Display a Field with a Fixed Number of Characters in Crystal Reports?

A client recently asked me how do I display a field with a fixed number of characters, using leading zeros, in Crystal Reports XI.

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04
July

The Things I Wish I could do in Crystal Reports

I absolutely love working and designing reports using Crystal Reports, but sometimes there are times that I wish it had some of the functionality of other report writers and software.

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01
July

How Do I Sort the Numbers in a Text Field in the Correct Order in Crystal Reports??

A client recently asked me how to sort numbers in a text data field correctly in Crystal Reports XI.

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08
June

How Do I Suppress Blank Fields Embedded within Text Objects in Crystal Reports?

I was recently asked How Do I Suppress Blank Fields Embedded within Text Objects in Crystal Reports?

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06
June

How Do I Control the No. Records Per Page in Crystal Reports 2008?

I was recently asked how do I control the number of records printed per page to 50 in Crystal Reports 2008.

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31
May

How Do I Display the Previous Current and Next Month data in Crystal Reports XI?

I was recently asked how do I display the previous, current and next months data, based on a parameter date in Crystal Reports XI.

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05
May

How Do I Dynamically Change the Fields and Field Positions in Crystal Reports XI?

A client recently asked how does one dynamically change the report fields and their relative field positions on a report in Crystal Reports XI?

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14
April

How Do I Create a Conditionally Formatted Cross Tab in Crystal Reports?

Last week a client asked How Do I Create a Conditionally Formatted Cross Tab in Crystal Reports?

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05
April

How Do I Highlight the Largest Value of a Group in Crystal Reports?

During a recent Crystal Reports XI training session a delegate asked me how do I highlight the largest value within a group?

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29
March

How Do I Control the Line Spacing in Crystal Reports XI?

A client recently asked me How do I control the line spacing in text and memo fields in Crystal Reports XI?

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16
March

How Do I use a parameter to control the visibility of an image in Crystal Reports?

A client recently asked How does one use a parameter to display the correct company logo on a standard report in Crystal Reports?

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14
February

Crystal Reports 2008 Clamp at Bottom of Page

I was asked recently during a Crystal Reports 2008 training session, What does Clamp at Bottom of Page do?

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20
June

Save time designing reports using default formatting options

When designing reports in Crystal Reports, it is possible to save time by defining the default formatting of the report objects, including fields, text and chart objects.

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09
June

How Do I Create a Customed Grouped Financial Year Report in Crystal Reports?

During a recent training session, a delegate asked how does one create a grouped report based on a financial year that starts in May, using Crystal Reports?

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11
May

Comments, Comments, Comments

I am currently working on a project designing a suite of reports for a new client, using SQL Reporting Services. Obviously over time the number of reports will increase, and it is so easy to forget why the report was designed in the first place.

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