A brief guide on how to access and make changes to the location, size, font style of fields or items on a Crystal Template. Cyrious uses Crystal Templates for the creation of Reports, Work Orders, Estimates, Invoices and everything else which you print or from which you create PDFs. This gives the user complete control over what is printed out. Cyrious Tech Support will write Custom Reports or make these changes for a reasonable charge; however with the Purchase of the Crystal Reports program from Crystal, even the relative novice user can make small changes and adjustments to customize to your unique situation. If you start small and get comfortable with the Crystal program and how the Cyrstal Report template interfaces with Cyrious by making small simple changes, you will find that pretty quickly you will be making more and more sophisticated modifications to your reports.

We use Crystal 2008 to make make the Order No on Work Orders a smaller font.

You can't get in much trouble modifying your reports if you write down the name of the current report which you know is working so that you can retrieve and go back to it as your report. You will need to ask Tech Support to create an how_to_create_an_odbc_link to your files which they will do for you in just a couple of minutes. Be sure to ask them to set you up so that you can preview your work immediately using Cyrious's Preview function in the Work Order report. This may require special code in your Cyrious startup shortcut. With this feature you can make a change in Crystal and immediately view the result in Cyrious. Be sure to write down the path and folder where this is located. They will give you a Password to the database which you must also be sure to find a way to remember, as you will need it when opening your template in Crystal.

  1. Purchase and install Crystall 2008 on the computer on which you will be working. It is probably most convenient that this be on the same computer on which Control is running but that is not essential.
  2. Bring your Work Order up as if you were going to print and select Print and Preview. Expand the Save Tab and you will choces for the Filename and Report Type. Select Crystal Report. Note the filename and path and then Save your report. For most systems it will probably be saved in your Control/ReportExport folder on the machine on which Cyrious is running This will create a file in that menu labeled something like WorkOrder.rpt.
  3. Open Crystal. You will get a startup screen where you can Open a new file. Use the Open File command and go to the ReportExport folder where you save the WorkOrder.rpt file. Open that file. Crystal has 2 presentations - Design View and Print Preview View. You may be presented with a screen asking you to select a database or enter a password. Click on the Back button to go to the Previous Screen. In the next to the last field you will select the ODBC connection Cyrious created for you. Click on the Browser button to locate that “connection” and click on it. Click Next and you will see a screen asking for a password and databse name. Enter the password Cyrious gave you and be sure the database name is storedata. Click OK and you will see your Work Order looking almost exactly the same as it you had previewed it in Cyrious. If the report comes up in Crystal's design view, you can go to the Preview View by clicking on the Crystal View Option at the top of the Crystal Screen and selecting Print Preview. Alternatively, you swirch to the Design View by choosing that from the View menu. Once you have opened both Views you can switch back and forth between them from the tabs for your file selection.
  4. If you haven't seen a template before, you may be a little overwhelmed by what appears and tempted to close the report and forget the whole idea. If your report comes up in Crystal's design format you will be presented with a page which shows all the fields which can be printed under any condition. You may see fields which have never appeared on any printout you have viewed. Don't let that frighten you off. One of the powerful features of Templates and Crystal is that you can set formulas and criteria as to when a certain item is to appear in a report. For example, the red stuff in the Template only appears if there was a serious error in creating the report such as Cyrious could not find certain mandatory data fields.

Spend a few minutes looking over the template and you will shortly recognize labels that look a lot like what is printed out in your Work Order but with slightly different labels. These will be the actual names of the fields in the Cyrious database. For example, The Work Order Number is called **OrderNo**. You will also notice toolbars some of which should be pretty familiar. For example, you will see where you can select a font, icons for Bold, Italics, etc and similar formatting options. Look for a field which says OrderNo and click on that. Try and make it not bold. Try changing the Font size. You will see those changes take effect on your screen. Modify the loacation a little up or down or to the right and left by clicking and dragging. Then Save your changes.

  1. Go to The Setup Tab in Cyrious and Select Reporting Setup. You will be presented with a Tab called Report Menu Setup. On the left will be a list of Reports. It is divided into folders depending on the Report Type and its location. The Work Order report template is in the Reports on Action Toolbar probably under under the heading Invoice and Work Order. Select that report and enter Edit mode. You will see two options for File Location. One is System Reports which will probably be the one selected. Write down the name of the System Report currently selected so that you can go back to it if you want. Then check the On Drive radio button and browse to the Cyrious ReportExport folder and select the Work Order report you exported and just saved from Crystal.
  2. Return to your Work Order and Preview a new Work Order Report. If all has gone as it should, your Work Order should appear with the font and location change you have made to the Order Number.

Contributor: Steve Gillispie

Date: 07/18/2009

Version: Control 4.3._

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