Operation Manual

Quick Start
Quick start for new users
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Crystal Reports User’s Guide 53
The Design tab should look similar to this:
Understanding fields
Before going any further, take a look at the field you just placed in the Details
section:
• First of all, the object frame indicates that when the report is printed, a
field value will appear where the box is positioned.
• If you haven’t selected the Show Field Names check box on the Layout
tab of the Options dialog box, the object frame contains Xs to indicate
that the database field contains a text string. Other data types have
different character representations. For example, a currency data type is
represented by $55,555.56.
• If your report is not showing field names, the number of Xs in the object
frame is the data width, the maximum number of characters in the field as
defined by the database. Whether or not your report shows field names,
the width of the object frame is the field width (the amount of space
allocated to the field for printing). Initially it is set to the width needed to
display the maximum number of characters in the field (using the font
selected for the field). You can change this width by resizing the field.
• The size of the characters or Xs indicates the point size selected for the
characters in the field.
• The font and style (Bold, Underline, and so on) used in displaying the
characters or Xs indicate the font and style selected for the characters in
the field. Later in this tutorial you will learn how to make changes to these
properties.
• The line spacing is adjusted to the point size selected for the characters
in the field.