HANDS-ON (Absolute Formatting)
How to add color, shading, and borders
Seagate Crystal Reports allows you to add color, borders, and shading to fields on your report to emphasize important data and create professional looking reports.
Right-click the field you want to format and choose the CHANGE BORDER command from the shortcut menu that appears.
The Format Editor appears. Click the Border Tab to activate it.
!Select the border type (line style), color, placement, and background color you want and click OK when finished.
The program formats the selected field to your specifications.
How to add/edit lines and boxes
Seagate Crystal Reports allows you to add lines and boxes to your report to emphasize important data and create professional looking reports.
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Adding lines
Editing lines
Adding boxes
Click the INSERT LINE button on the supplementary toolbar. A pencil-shaped cursor appears.
Using the pencil cursor, draw the line where desired.
Right-click the line you want to format and choose the FORMAT LINE command from the shortcut menu that appears. The Format Editor appears with the Format Line Tab active.
Make the desired changes and click OK when finished to return to your report.
Click the INSERT BOX button on the supplementary toolbar. A pencil-shaped cursor appears.
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Using the pencil cursor, draw the box where desired.
Editing boxes
Right-click the box you want to format and choose the FORMAT BOX command from the shortcut menu that appears. The Format Editor appears with the Format Box Tab active.
Select the color, width, style, and/or fill color you want and click OK when finished.
The program formats the selected box to your specifications.
How to change margins
Choose the PAGE SETUP command from the File menu. The Page Setup dialog box appears.
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2 Change the default page margins to fit your needs and click OK when finished.
All margins are calculated from the paper edge. Thus, a left margin of .25 inches causes the printing to start exactly one quarter inch in from the edge of the paper.
How to add/delete white space between rows
Deleting white
space by resizing
The height of a section in relation to the objects in it affects the amount of white space that appears between rows on your report.
The free form Design Tab allows you to add and delete white space two ways:
1.by sizing the area in the Design Tab using the resizing cursor, or
2.by changing options using the Section Expert.
To delete unnecessary white space in a section, simply move the mouse pointer over the bottom section boundary line. The pointer will change to a resizing cursor.
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Deleting white
space using the Section Expert
Adding white
space by resizing
When the resizing cursor appears drag the section boundary up to remove extra white space.
Your report will print like this...
If an entire section is blank (i.e., if you are not putting anything into the Page Footer section of your report), you can eliminate the unnecessary white space by suppressing the section in the Section Expert.
Click the SECTION EXPERT button on the standard toolbar. The Section Expert appears.
Highlight the Page Footer section in the Sections list box.
! Toggle the Suppress (No Drill-Down) option on.
The Page Footer section will no longer print.
NOTE: You can also right-click the shaded area to the left of the section and choose the FIT SECTION command from the shortcut
menu that appears. The program automatically resizes the section so the bottom boundary is even with the baseline of the bottom object in the section. See How to eliminate blank lines, Page 227.
To add extra white space between rows in your report, simply move the mouse pointer over the bottom section boundary line. The pointer will change to a resizing cursor.
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