Getting Started with the Report Wizards

The Report Wizards are accessed from either the Getting Started page previously highlighted in Figure 1.1 or from the New menu option accessed under the main File menu. The four report wizards facilitate the guided, visual creation of four types of reports.

As Figure 1.12 illustrates, the New menu option from under the File menu serves as the gateway to accessing and using the various report creation wizards. From this menu, you can select from one of the four provided report wizards:

• Standard Used to create traditional columnar-styled reports

• Cross-Tab Used to create summary styled Cross-Tab reports

• Mailing Label Used to create reports with multiple columns, such as address labels

• OLAP Cube Used to create summary styled Cross-Tab reports that are based on an OLAP data source

Figure 1.12. The Crystal Reports New File menu provides quick access to the various report creation wizards.

The remainder of this section focuses on exploring and using the Standard Report Creation Wizard. In general, this is the most commonly used report wizard, and it provides a good introduction to the components of the report design process. If your interests lie in either OLAP Cube or Cross-Tab reports, they are covered in later chapters.