Multi-Column Report Issue

[ray_novak]

I am using the Crystal Reports edition bundled with Visual Studio 2005. I have a problem with a multi-column report. It is a two column member directory with family members. It lists the member name, contact info, spouse, and children. I want each family group to stay together, and not break cross a column or a page. Each group may have from 3 to a dozen or so lines.

The family groups will not break across a page (which is good), but they will break across a column (bad). I have tried many combinations of settings to make this work without success.

So I wonder if anyone has seen and resolved this problem, or if perhaps it works better in the full version of Crystal.

[Former Member]

Hi,

I have a similar issue, where at the end of each varying length rows, I am not able to achevie a carriage return to start printing the next row of data in the next line.

Please find attached the word file for more info with depiction of a screen shot

Your effort would be of great help for me.

Thanks !

[former_member11696]

CR .NET is s simplified version of the full Crystal Reports. Upgrade to CR Designer to get full control.

Also, if you purchase a case for a bug you will get a credit for the case.

[ray_novak]

I tried the "Print at Bottom of Page" as suggested with no improvement - I believe the Visual Studio design controls are pretty much the same as the standalone product.

[Former Member]

Hi Ray,

Have you solved the problem? I have the same problem as you.

Thanks,

Joseph

[ray_novak]

Still no solution. I may submit a bug report to Crystal/BO/SAP, but it costs $195, which is pretty annoying.

My plan right now is to implement this report using some other report writer tool and run it manually on demand outside of my main reporting system.

[ray_novak]

In some sub-sections, I have checked 'Suppress Blank Section' checked. In others, I have a suppression formula.

Each section has only a single field.

The record set that the report uses has a single row for each person. The sorting and grouping is arranged so that the first record in each family group is the 'main' member. The report displays this person's name, and also shows the sections which include address and phone number info. Subsequent records are for family members (spouse and/or children). For these records, I display the name, but suppress the address and phone sections.

There is also a detail sub-section used as a group header. This group breaks when the first letter of the last name changes, so it an display a single letter heading ("A"). I had tried this as a regular group header too, but it didn't help.

I have tried combining all the sections into a single one with each field on a separate line (which means the section can have some blank space), and also combined into a text box. No luck.

I also have the group itself set to "Keep Together' in the group expert. Doesn't help/

[former_member260594]

Ray,

I'm not familiar with Visual Studios CR controls but within the designer I've found the best way to control groups a multi column report is to set the highest group level footer to print at the bottom of the page.

So if the top level of grouping is Family name set the group footer to Print at Bottom of Page. This will force the next grouping instance to the top of the page in the next column.

[ray_novak]

I have applied those steps (with the exception that the report requires 'Down, then Across') with no luck.

I tried it with 'Across, then Down' just to see what would happen, and the result was the same.

[Former Member]

Hi

- Try suppressing all the blank sections from Section expert.

- Also you can suppress the null values.

- manually put the fields one below other like:

database field1

database field2

rather than :

database field1 database field2

- check the option for "format with multiple columns" Across then down as mentioned earlier.

Hope this helps!!

Regards

Sourashree

[ray_novak]

I probably should gave given more info about the report structure. The 'Details' section is broken up into 7 sub-sections, so I can separately suppress those with no data. Each section (and the main 'Details' container) have the 'Keep Together' property set. The individual sections do stay together - the problem is that the main 'Details' container breaks across columns.

[Former Member]

Hi

The steps those I mentioned, can be applied in Bundled version also.

You can give it a try. If that does not work, then we can think about other possible workarounds.

Regards

Sourashree

[ray_novak]

Thanx for the quick reply - these are exactly the steps I have taken in the Visual Studio designer. I do not have the standalone Crystal product (I tried to install it once as a trial version, but it screwed up my Visual Studio installation and I had to re-install everything).

Do you think that the standalone version would have different behavior than the bundled version in this regard?

[Former Member]

Hi

Try with this:

- Open the crystal reports in Crystal reports designer stand alone application.

- Click on Report Menu -> Section expert -> Details section.

- Check the option "Format with multiple columns.

- This would give a new tab "LayOut". Click on this layout tab.

- Select the option for "Across then Down".

-Check Format group with multiple columns.

-You can also apply settings for width, height as per requirement.

-Click on Ok.

Hope this helps!!!

Regards

Sourashree