Crystal Reports Training by Ken Hamady, MS, Reporting and Training Nationwide
The
Crystal
Reports Underground News - January 2002
an independent source for Crystal
Reports
Information
by Ken Hamady, MS
This month's contents:
** Where to buy Crystal Reports on the Web
** CR Upgrades - Any old version of Crystal Reports can save you $160
** January/February classes in Leesburg, Baltimore and Philadelphia
** Buying Crystal Reports on Ebay
** Expert on-site training or consulting
** Expanding the design area of Crystal Reports
** Calculating the Quartile from the percentile
** My Quick Reference to Crystal Reports in Visual Basic
** Read back issues at http://www.kenhamady.com/news.html
Where to buy Crystal
Reports
on the Web:
Since you are reading this
you
probably already own a copy of Crystal Reports. But you might
still
need to buy an additional copy, or upgrade to a newer version. I
have
included a price comparison from 3 Internet sites that sell Crystal
Reports.
I have also included some little known facts about Crystal Decisions
upgrade
policy. Further down you will find an article on buying or
selling
Crystal Reports on Ebay.
Buying the software from Crystal Decisions only makes sense if you are
willing
to download it, and don't want the manuals. If you want the
regular
boxed version you should visit a major online software retailer like
CDW
or PC Connections:
http://www.cdw.com
http://www.pcconnections.com
Here are the prices found on 12/30/2001:
8.5 Professional Full, single user:
$395 Crystal Decisions - Boxed
$355 Crystal Decisions - Download
$350 PC Connections - Boxed
$360 CDW - Boxed
8.5 Professional Upgrade, single user:
$199 Crystal Decisions - Boxed
$179 Crystal Decisions - Download
$186 PC Connections - Boxed
$189 CDW - Boxed
Buying Upgrades for
Crystal
Reports:
You can save even more money buying CR if you understand the upgrade
policy.
Buying an upgrade instead of the full version will save you about $160
on
the Professional Edition, and $200 on the Developer Edition. Of
course,
you have to have something to upgrade. Upgrades can be used with
old
versions of Crystal, OEM licenses for Crystal and sometimes a competing
reporting
tool.
** Old Crystal versions:
It surprises some users to find that you can upgrade from ANY version
of
Crystal Reports or Crystal Info up to the current version. When
you
install an upgrade to CRv8.x the upgrade will look for any valid copy
of
CR on your PC. If it doesn't find one it will ask you where to
look.
The upgrade can use any version and any edition of CR. For
instance
you can take something old like CRv3 Standard Edition, and upgrade it
to
CRv8.5 Developer Edition, for the upgrade price of $240. That old
version
of Crystal, any old version, saves you about $200. So, don't
throw
out your old software.
**OEM Licenses:
Many software products come bundled with Crystal Reports. These
copies
of Crystal are called OEM licenses. While they often preform just
like
a regular install of CR, technically they are only licensed to be used
to
retrieve data from one specific application.
These OEM licenses are valuable because they qualify for upgrade to a
full
Crystal Reports license, at the upgrade price. Sometimes the OEM
license
is more valuable than the software that it comes with. For
example
I recently spent $9.95 for a brand new copy of "ACCPAC Simply
Accounting".
This comes with an OEM copy of CR7 which is (by license) restricted to
reading
ACCPAC data. However, since the OEM license qualifies for
upgrade,
it saved me $200. Once upgraded it becomes an unrestricted
license.
I pulled a 7 year old copy of Delrina Form Flow and it came with a copy
of
CRv3.
An often overlooked OEM license comes with Visual Basic. Every
copy
of VB sold in the past several years, even VB6, comes with an OEM copy
of
CRv4.6. This OEM license also qualifies for upgrade to the
current
version of CR. It is often overlooked because VB6 doesn't install
this
copy of CR by default. It is on the CD and you have to move it
manually.
But, you don't want to confuse OEM licenses with the runtime engine for
Crystal
Reports. Many software applications have the ability to run
"canned"
reports using the free runtime engine (CRPE32.dll). Having this
engine
is not the same as having an OEM license to Crystal Reports. An
OEM
license would also include a copy of CRW32.exe, which gives you the
ability
to create and modify reports, not just run them. If you have any
doubts,
call Crystal Decisions Sales and ask them if you can upgrade.
**Competitive Upgrades:
Starting with CRv8.0, all upgrades must find an older copy of Crystal
Reports.
But before that, up to and including CRv7, you could upgrade from
several
of Crystal's competitors using an upgrade license. The list
includes:
Access
Dbase for Windows
Visual Dbase
Visual Basic
R&R Report Writer (several versions)
ReportSmith 2.5 - 3.0
IQ
Business Objects
Borland Delphi
Actuate
Impromptu 2.0 - 3.5
Powerplay 5.01
Quick Reports
If you own one or more of these products, you can upgrade them to valid
Crystal
license using the upgrade version of CRv5, CRv6 or CRv7. You can
then
can upgrade the upgrade to V8.5 as long as you own the original
competitive
product, and the original upgrade. Here is where keeping old
software
can sometimes pay off, and why Ebay is so popular! See my article
below
on buying or selling software on Ebay.
Study Crystal Reports
with
an Expert this Winter:
Click the "Public Classes" button above for dates
Each class is $675 per student.
Or, call for more information at (888)752-4916 (toll free).
Crystal Reports software
on
Ebay:
If you are careful, you can
get
some real good software deals Ebay. I have purchased a dozen or
so
full Crystal Reports licenses, a handful of upgrade licenses, and some
accounting
packages that include Crystal OEM licenses. The software I buy is
always
still in the sealed box and has never been registered. For
example,
I just bought a copy of CR Developer 8.5, the 5-user pack. The
seller
had won it at a technical conference and had no use for it. The
box
is still unopened. This would normally sell for $1,950 and I got
it
for about $400. Most used software licenses can also be bought
and
sold legally, as long as the seller doesn't keep a copy.
Ebay isn't for everyone, and you should ask lots of questions before
you
bid. If you decide to buy a copy of Crystal Reports from Ebay,
ask
the seller the following questions:
Is this new and in the original box with all
original
materials?
Has it ever been registered?
Does the box say anything like "Educational Edition"
or
"Not for Resale"?
What is the 7 character product code below the bar
code
on the box?
The product code will be something like PRUCC85, and this will tell
exactly
what you are buying. Each letter position has a different meaning:
1) W=Standard, P=Professional, D=Developer
2) V/R = Single user, L = 5 user pack
3) P/S = Full version, U = Upgrade
4) R/C = Regular Retail, S = Added Subscription (includes one free
upgrade)
5) This is always the letter "C"
6-7) the version number
So the code PRUCC85 is CRv8.5 Professional Upgrade, single user.
If
you find other codes not mentioned here, I would be wary. Call
Crystal
Decisions to find out what they mean before you bid. You may be
getting
a version that can't be resold.
Expert On-Site Training
or
Consulting:
I have personally taught over 1200 satisfied students in more than 30
states.
On-site training is my specialty, and I charge about half of the "List
Price"
for Crystal Training.
Do I know my stuff? Go to Crystal Reports General forum at
Tek-Tips.com
and you will find me listed as the top rated Crystal Reports expert out
of
over 23,000 members:
http://www.tek-tips.com/gthreadminder.cfm/lev2/4/lev3/100/pid/149
Can I teach? Over 1200 students have written that they would
recommend
my class. Ask to speak to a recent customer as a reference.
Call
for more information at (888)752-4916.
Expanding the design area
in
Crystal Reports:
The width of the design screen in Crystal Reports is taken from your
default
printer settings; including the paper size and orientation. These
settings
can be changed using the menu options "File - Printer Setup". The
maximum
width for most printers is about 13.5 inches, achieved by using legal
size
paper in landscape orientation.
Some reports are never printed but are only exported or previewed to
the
screen. This can be frustrating because even these reports are
limited
to the width of a specific printer. If you need a wider design
area
for an exported report, you need a to setup a printer driver that
supports
wider paper sizes like Ledger or A3. Even if you don't actually
own
a wide carriage printer, you can still add one to your list of
available
printers. Selecting the (non-existent) wide carriage printer for
a
report will give you a wider design area, a wider preview area and will
widen
your export space. Keep in mind that if you must also use this
report
on another PC, this PC will also need to have the printer installed, or
else
it won't maintain the wide format. If you use the same printer
name
as on the design PC, it will find this printer automatically on the
target
PC.
Below are some common printers that you will find in many Windows
environments.
Included is the paper size to select to get the widest design screen
for
that printer. Remember that not all fonts are supported by all
printers.
HP LaserJet 5000 (11x17 - 17")
HP LaserJet 4V (Maximum - 17.7")
Okidata ML 321 (11x17 - 17")
Okidata ML 395 (Tabloid - 17")
Generic (Ledger/Tabloid - 17")
Epson Stylus Pro XL (Super A3 - 18")
Epson Stylus Pro 5000 (Panoramic - 23")
Calculating Quartiles or
Quintiles:
Version 8.x comes with lots
of
nifty summary operations like weighted averages, Nth most frequent and
even
a way to calculate percentiles. You can use the percentile
function
to create quartiles by following the example below. Change the
ranges
to get Quintiles.
if {Sales} <= PthPercentile (25, {Sales}) then "1st" else
if {Sales} <= PthPercentile (50, {Sales}) then "2nd" else
if {Sales} <= PthPercentile (75, {Sales}) then "3rd" else "4th"
VB Quick Reference Guide:
If you plan on incorporating Crystal Reports into a VB application, you
should
get my Quick Reference Guide. It gives an overview of the
integration
methods, with syntax examples for the most important commands. It
comes
with some source code examples, including a sample report viewer.
It
is only $16 and can be Emailed to you within 24 hours. Follow the
link
below for more details:
http://www.kenhamady.com/vbref.html
Contact Information:
Ken Hamady, MS
525K East Market St. PMB 299
Leesburg, VA 20176
(540) 338-0194
ken@kenhamady.com
http://www.kenhamady.com
Copyright 2002
by Ken Hamady
All rights reserved - Republishing this material requires written
permission