Managing the Toolbars
The toolbars are located directly below the menu options listed along the top of the designer. The toolbars make it easy to access the different designer features by the simple click on the mouse. Most buttons either perform an action or make a change to the currently selected report object. Some of the actions are opening a new report, saving the report, adding a chart to the report, or opening a report wizard. Some of the changes that can be made to report objects are changing the font, formatting a number as currency, and aligning text to be left or right justified.
You can control which toolbars are displayed and where they are located. By default, when you first install Crystal Reports, all the toolbars are displayed. But if you’re like me, I like to maximize the amount of space available on my screen and I always rearrange my toolbars and turn off the ones I don’t want. To do this, right-click anywhere on one of the existing toolbars and the context-sensitive menu pops up.
Figure 1-5. The Toolbar menu.
The menu shows each toolbar available and there is a checkbox to the left of each toolbar currently displayed. Click on the toolbar name to toggle it on or off. This automatically updates the toolbar and closes the menu.
On the left side of each toolbar is a line of vertical dots. These are used to grab the toolbar and move it around. By moving the cursor on top of these dots, the mouse cursor changes to a navigation cursor. Hold down the mouse button and drag it around until the toolbar is in the place you want and release the mouse.
The Status Bar at the bottom of the designer is also classified as a toolbar. It shows the report object currently selected, its report coordinates, the report modification date, and the number of records to be displayed on the report. Just like the other toolbars, the Status Bar can be turned off as well. However, it can’t be moved around. It has to stay at the bottom of the designer.
Any changes you make to the toolbars are saved and will be in effect the next time you open Crystal Reports.
