If you’ve not seen the latest version of Crystal Reports, then you might want to see what you are missing. The latest version of Crystal Reports (v13) is called Crystal Reports 2008 and started shipping earlier this month. Although there are a lot of great features in the product including:
- New Parameter Panel with optional Parameters
- Long awaited Cross-tab Enhancements
- Better Page Control for Web-based Reporting
- Salesforce.com and CrystalReports.com Integration
Favorite Feature in Crystal Reports 2008
Probably my favorite feature is the new Xcelsius and Flex Integration. It’s so cool. You can now take controls that are built using Xcelsius and the Adobe Flex environment and embed them directly into Crystal Reports. In fact as Xcelsius expands it’s support for Flex, we will be able to embed better looking, more dynamic and more powerful visualizations into Crystal Reports.
I have included a couple of sample Xcelsius pie charts that you can embed into a Crystal Report and then link to data using Crystal Reports 2008. You can download them here. This sample includes two Xcelsius swf objects and three Crystal Reports.
My Other Favorite Feature
Starting with version 9 of Crystal Reports, the software took on an annoying new habit. When you wanted to change the font or the font size, the cursor would insert itself into the field instead of highlighting the entire field, so when you started typing, it would INSERT a new value instead of allowing you to type over the value.
This viewlet will show you what I mean.
Well, this has been fixed in Crystal Reports 2008! I shared my feelings with the guys in development and they took care of it for me. Now when you change the font or font size it works just like MS Word or MS Excel. This is fantastic! Sometimes it’s the little things in life that give you the biggest joy.
Keep up the hard work guys!!