The Grouping Page

Some reports have so much data on them that they can be a little hard to understand. When reports are dozens or even hundreds of pages long, you need to organize the information in a way that makes it easier to absorb the data in smaller pieces. You do this by creating groups within the report. Groups can be based on many things. Some examples are grouping on months of the year or the names of the different branch offices for a company.

Figure 2-5. The Grouping tab of the report wizard.

The Summaries Page

It is very common for reports to calculate sub-totals and other summary calculations on the numeric fields. The Total tab, shown in Figure 2-6, is where you define the summary calculations for the different fields. The left listbox shows all the available fields. The right listbox shows the fields that will have summary functions calculated for them.

Figure 2-6. The Summaries page of the report wizard.

The Group Sorting Page

When adding a group to a report, you probably assume that every record within the group will be displayed. In most circumstances this is the case. However, you can tell Crystal Reports to only display a certain number of records based upon their rank. For example, you could have a top salesperson report where you show the top 10 salespeople in your office. You could also have another report that shows the worst 10 salespeople. The Top N tab lets you do this by sorting the groups based on a summary field.

Figure 2-7. The Group Sorting page of the report wizard.

The Chart Tab

This tab lets you add a chart to your report.

Figure 2-8. The Chart tab from the Report Expert.