Crystal Reports Features [missing] in Access

From: grrr223 (grrr223.1249qv_at_nospam.MSAccessForum.com)
Date: 02/23/04 

Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 11:43:39 -0600

Our ERP software uses Crystal Reports to report off of a SQL Server
database. We also use Excel spreadsheets WAY too much.

We are now moving all of our Excel spreadsheets into Access Data
Projects, and Access has it's own report writing capapbilities which I
see are incredibly powerful due in large part to VB automation and the
benefits of using one application to both enter data and report on it.

This brings me to the question of:

IF I AM GOING TO BE USING ACCESS TO ENTER DATA ANYWAY, IS THERE ANY
PRESSING REASON I WOULD CONTINUE TO USE CRYSTAL REPORTS?

While converting several reports from Crystal to Access, I have run
into a few features that I found very useful in Crystal that are
"missing" in Access. By "missing" I simply mean that I haven't figured
out simple ways of replicating them [yet].

Does anyone have any suggestions on replicating the following Crystal
Reports features in and Access 2003 Data Project? I am very open to
using VB, I just haven't found a very good starting place on these
things yet.

1. *Multiple Sections* Crystal lets a user create multiple versions of
each section which can then each be turned on or off independtly using
conditional formatting. For example, on a customer statement, I might
want different fields to display for a payment than an invoice.
2. *Conditional Visibility [of Sections]* Similar to the above feature,
Crystal allows one to VERY easily turn on or off the visibility of a
section based on any conditional expression. It allows the user to
select which of the multiple sections to display as well as a method of
filtering which records get displayed. I have certain formulas on my
reports that prevent me from filtering the query, I need to simply
filter the visibility of the records in the report.
3. *Specified Grouping* I want a little more control over my grouping
than simply sorting by equal periods or the first 3 letters of a field.
Crystal offers the ability to specify a group based on any expression,
and even give it a name. For example, I want to create two groups on my
report: Previous Activity and Current Activity. Since the previous
activity can occur more than a month or even a year ago, I cannot group
on either of those things. I simply want to specify Group "Previous
Activity" as those records with dates before the statement's start
date, and "Current Activity" for records with dates after the start
date.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I look forward to overcoming
these minor hurdles with the help of those Access experts out there.

Thank you,
Mike

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