Updates
Latest Tweet
What's New?
Check out for latest innovation, a computer based training video collection
Like this Page
Sams Teach Yourself Crystal Reports 9 in 24 Hours Review by Jodi-Ann Richards
Very Good Book For Beginners
This is a "Teach Yourself" book and as such is very good for beginners. I think this book does an excellent job of clearly explaining how to use Crystal Reports 9 to people who are new to this product. Here are the things that I found really helpful about this book:
1. Clear and Concise Explanation of Concepts
Before covering a topic the authors clearly explain the concepts involved. I found this to be really helpful because I clearly understood the purpose of each feature that was covered.
2. Hands-on Exercises
This book is full with exercises to reinforce the ideas covered and to demonstrate how to perform the most common tasks. It is not enough to simply discuss the concepts discussed. As a new user of CR 9 it is important to actually practise using the product and this book provides numerous exercises to ensure this.
3. Plenty of Screenshots
When you are new to an application it is easy to make mistakes even though the instructions are clearly written. It helps when you have screenshots to show what your screen should look like. That way you can quickly identify where you went wrong. Every important task in this book is accompanied by screenshots.
4. Numerous Practical Examples
This book not only teaches you how to perform a task but also gives practical examples of when you might need to use that feature. For example, when I first read about multiple report sections I started wondering why would I need this feature. As if the authors anticipated this, they quickly followed up with a very good example of needing "to create a form letter for your customers and you need to display only one of two possible return addresses on the letter - an American address for customers based in the United States and a Canadian address for the remainder of your North American customers." They then explain how to accomplish this using multiple report header sections and Conditional Formatting.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is new to CR 9.