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Crystal Reports for R:BASE
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PRODUCT: Crystal Reports VERSION: 1.0
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AREA: Reports CATALOG: GENERAL INFORMATION
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Microrim is releasing another new WindowsTM DBMS tool called Crystal
Reports for R:BASE. Crystal Reports is one of the hottest selling
Windows report writers on the market today. Microrim has entered a
special license agreement with Crystal Computer Services, Inc. to
offer R:BASE customers a version of Crystal Reports that works
specifically with R:BASE. The product will be released by the end
of June. You will be able to use this report writer with all DOS
versions of R:BASE (2.x, 3.x and 4.x) including R:BASE 4.5 to create
powerful data analysis reports.
Crystal Reports for R:BASE is a powerful, yet easy-to-use Windows
report writer for database reporting! The product includes both a
Report Designer and a Report Engine Dynamic Link Library (DLL).
The Report Designer
The Report Designer allows for simple layout of reports by end users
as well as powerful data analysis reports by power users. You can
produce professional quality reporting with graphic inserts and
complex calculations using the powerful formula language.
Key functions and features of the Report Engine include:
Presentation-quality reports
The report writer has multiple report design options including: full
Windows printer and font support, graphics, boxes, drop shadows, lines
and COLOR. With the lines, drop shadows and boxes you can emphasize
text, add pizzazz and visual impact to reports. Crystal Reports for
R:BASE was designed for maximum graphics compatibility. As long as the
graphics are stored in one of the popular graphics formats, such
as .bmp, .pcx, .gif, .tif, and .tga, Crystal will enable you to use it
in your report. You can use bit-mapped graphics in your reports from a
wide variety of sources, including: scanners, paint programs, video
capture cards, screen capture programs, CompuServeTM, commercial
graphics developers, and shareware and public domain graphics
suppliers.
Point-and-click ease-of-use
With the banded WYSIWIG Report Designer model, creating reports is
easy to understand and fast to work with. With full mouse support you
can drag and drop tables, columns, or text anywhere on the report. You
can easily produce mailing labels by selecting standard AveryTM
formats or custom layouts. Use the right mouse Property Inspector to
make changing field attributes, inserting subtotals, and selecting
data very simple.
Industrial strength data analysis
With over 100 functions and operators including standard deviation,
two pass reporting, group sorting, and variance summary types,
powerful data-intensive reports can be created in minutes. The same
reports that used to take an R:BASE power user hours of programming,
can now be accomplished in minutes by any R:BASE user. Two pass
reporting is a key calculation to mention. The two pass reporting
gives you the ability to perform percentage calculations that require
passing through the database twice. You can produce sales percentages
by area within overall quarter sales, or use it for aging reports in
accounting, or for inventory percentages within subgroups, the list
goes on... Crystal Reports for R:BASE is an extension of the power of
R:BASE for the Windows environment.
The Report Engine DLL
The Report Engine DLL is an object-oriented development tool for
reporting that allows professional developers, MIS staff and
programmers to save hundreds of hours on all of their development
projects. Reports designed with Crystal Reports for R:BASE can be
seamlessly integrated with applications developed using other Windows
development tools to ensure rapid application development. Application
developers can use Crystal Reports for R:BASE to create reports, then
their customers can print them from within their Windows applications.
With Crystal Reports for R:BASE you can distribute your reports to an
unlimited number of customers as a runtime version -- this creates
endless options for you and your clients.
Key functions and features of the Report Engine include:
Reports from multiple tables. With Crystal Reports for R:BASE you can
link multiple tables together to report the information you need. Or
link R:BASE data in R:BASE views and create reports using those views.
An example for using this feature is when you want to combine your
inventory data table with your sales table to create a current cost of
sales report.
Print reports from the Windows desktop -- even when you're not there!
The unique report compiler generates report icons for printing from
the Windows desktop. By saving regularly used reports as "report
icons", printing them is as simple as clicking on an icon. Set reports
to print after hours when network traffic is lower by setting print
options for when and where you want them to print. You can also easily
change the report formats without re-compiling or changing your code.
Power for professional programmers. User-defined functions can easily
be added to the Crystal Reports formula language by writing functions
in C, C++ or any other language that will compile a DLL and then add
in the DLL to Crystal Reports. Additional calls to the Report Engine
give you the ability to develop professional applications to be used
with a wide variety of printers.
To run Crystal Reports for R:BASE
To use this product, you will need the following:
* Microsoft Windows version 3.0 or later and MS DOS 3.1 or later
compatible PC using 80286 or higher microprocessor.
* You will need a hard disk and a 5.25" or 3.5" high-density disk
drive.
* 4 MB of RAM and 5 MB of disk space
* EGA, VGA, 8514/A, or Hercules Graphics Card or other high resolution
graphics card compatible with Microsoft Windows version 3.0 or later.
* Optional: mouse or other pointing device. It will work with all
printers and networks supported by Microsoft Windows.
* Data can be accessed from any R:BASE for DOS version.
More Windows Tools Slated for 1993
Refer to upcoming issues of The Exchange for information on additional
Windows DBMS tools from Microrim. And, for more information on Crystal
Reports for R:BASE, the R:BASE SQL Engine or the R:BASE DataPublisher
-- or to place an order -- call (800) 628-6990.