MS Word / Editable RTF
Exporting to MS Word gives you the ability to open your report in a Word document. You can make changes to the document and print out a new report. The one unique aspect of the export is that the file does not use a .DOC file extension. Instead, it uses the .RTF file format which is compatible with Word.
Similar to Excel, there are two export options when exporting to Word. The first export type, Word – RTF, creates an exact replica of the report in the Word document. It does this by placing report objects inside text frames. This gives it the ability to use precise placement of report objects. This is ideal for forms that are printed onto paper and given to the user for filling out by hand. They can use the blank spaces to fill in the information. Unfortunately, using text objects to format report objects isn’t conducive to using the computer for making changes to the report document. It is too restrictive for data input.
Crystal Reports gives you a second export option, MS Word – Editable RTF, for making online changes. This export type puts the report object’s values in the document as text lines. This makes it easier to make changes within the document because the values are put onto the report as if you had typed them yourself.
The drawback to the Editable RTF export is that the Word document isn’t an exact match to the original report layout. By putting the report values on text lines, you lose some of the object formatting and the layout can be shifted a little. The document can still be similar to the original report, but not exact. The non-editable RTF option gives you much more accuracy. You can think of editable RTF making it easy to make changes on the computer whereas the original Word RTF export is good for printing forms to be filled out on paper.
The export options dialog box is very simplistic. For exporting to Word, you only get to set the page range to print. If you export to editable RTF, you also get the option of inserting hard page breaks at the end of each page.
