Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference (Osborne Complete Reference Series) [Paperback]

George Peck (Author)

Book Description

Series: Osborne Complete Reference Series | Publication Date: June 19, 2008

Your One-Stop Guide to Enterprise Reporting with Crystal Reports 2008

Transform disconnected corporate data into compelling, interactive business intelligence using all of the powerful tools available in Crystal Reports 2008. Through detailed explanations, real-world examples, and expert advice, this comprehensive guide shows you how to create, maintain, and distribute dynamic, visually appealing enterprise database reports.

Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference explains how to select and gather pertinent business data, organize it into manageable groups, and assemble it into user-friendly business reports. You will learn how to improve report interactivity with sort controls and the parameter panel; solve complex reporting problems with cross-tabs and subreports; integrate Crystal Xcelsius dashboards; reduce development time; and publish your results to Web and Windows applications.

• Integrate pictures, multimedia files, graphs, and charts
• Allow user-controlled report sorting with new sort controls
• Develop sophisticated formulas and custom functions with the Formula Workshop
• Embed Flash files, including Xcelsius 2008 interactive dashboards
• Create complex cross-tab reports with new derived rows and columns
• Export reports into Word, Excel, Acrobat, and updated XML formats
• Enhance Web interactivity with the new parameter panel and optional parameter fields
• Work with SQL databases, OLAP cubes, and proprietary systems
• Centralize design elements and auto-update reports using the repository
• Schedule and distribute reports with the latest BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0
• Embed reports in Web and Windows applications using Visual Studio 2008

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

George Peck George Peck is an internationally recognized consultant, educator, developer, speaker, and bestselling author of Crystal Reports Professional Results and six previous editions of Crystal Reports: The Complete Reference. He is president of The Ablaze Group, Inc. (AblazeGroup.com), a consultation and education firm specializing in Crystal Reports and the BusinessObjects Enterprise family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 968 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (June 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071590986
• ISBN-13: 978-0071590983
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Data Mining
  • #88 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Modeling & Simulation
  • #96 in Books > Business & Investing > Skills > Business Writing

More About the Author

George Peck is a software trainer, consultant, and developer with more than 20 years of experience in the computer industry. He purchased his first PC (a Radio Shack TRS-80) in 1978 and taught himself to program in one of the earliest versions of Microsoft BASIC. Later, when Microsoft shipped Visual Basic 1.0, George drove to the shipper's warehouse to pick it up, rather than waiting the extra day for delivery.

After more than 10 years as an internal consultant and trainer in a large corporation, George founded his own consulting and training firm in 1994. He has since trained, consulted, and developed custom software for large and small clients throughout the United States and Canada.

George is certified by Seagate Software as both a trainer and consultant for both Seagate Crystal Reports 7 and Seagate Info 7. He was awarded "Training Partner of the Year" by Seagate for 1998-1999.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource, February 5, 2009

By 

Clark B. Timmins "q-25" (West Jordan, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference (Osborne Complete Reference Series) (Paperback)

The text is one of the first available for Crystal Reports 2008, and is a major revision of much of the same material which has been presented in previous editions (which covered earlier versions of Crystal Reports). As you would expect, it does a solid job of covering all the basics. It even goes into intermediate and some advanced details in a few sections.

If you are a beginner to Crystal Reports, then the book will be an extremely valuable reference to you. Even if you're an experienced Crystal Reports developer or you have used previous versions of Crystal Reports this book will get a lot of use. If you're familiar with the earlier renditions of this book (i.e., for Crystal Reports XI, etc.), then you will find this rendition similar, but greatly expanded and better organized. The book has been through several major revisions and this is clearly evident in the accessible, intelligible, and organized materials. Chapters that have been particularly strengthened from previous editions include charts and maps; a new chapter on integrating with Flash in compelling. Parameters and report export formats are covered in detail. Especially useful is the section on reporting from proprietary (e.g., non-SQL) data sources, including OLAP cubes and .NET integration. Finally, the concluding Formula Language Reference is encyclopedic and authoritative. At about 1,000 pages, the book is really heavy--but really useful, too.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Electronic Version is Fine on PC, January 31, 2010

By 

John Simpson (San Carlos, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crystal Reports 2008 : The Complete Reference (Osborne Complete Reference Series) (Kindle Edition)

One of the earlier reviews said this and other reference books were not good electronically. I just downloaded this copy a few hours ago on my PC, and within minutes I found what I was looking for. I think the electronic version is GREAT. I don't have to lug around a thick book and there are all kinds of links to move around quickly. I could see why it would be bad on the standard Kindle, but for larger screens such as the PC, it works just fine.

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Version - DO NOT BUY IT, it is impractical, August 1, 2009

By 

Cartoon Head (Georgia US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference (Osborne Complete Reference Series) (Kindle Edition)

I purchased the paper and Kindle version of this book. The paper version is a terrific reference and 4 stars -- read other reviews, they pretty much summarize it well enough.

However, I would advise anyone NOT to buy the Kindle version. It is entirely impractical and useless in that format.

There is no good index with links to pages, and the table of contents is unwieldy as well. Even in the smallest font possible, the pages are difficult to use.

This isn't necessarily a shortcoming of this book alone -- I've made the mistake of purchasing several reference type books for my Kindle and all of them seem to fail in this delivery format -- but the sheer size of this book makes it ridiculously worse.

Spring the extra bucks for the real book. You will hate yourself for wasting your money on the Kindle version. And (no surprise) you cannot get a refund nor a credit towards the actual book from Amazon.

DON'T DO IT.