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Export format types
The export formats supported by Crystal Reports can be broadly categorized in two groups: page-based formats and record-based formats.
Page-based formats tend to produce a more exact output. The emphasis of these formats is layout representation and formatting. Formatting refers to attributes such as font style, text color, text alignment, background color, and so on. Layout refers to object position, object size, and the relationship between these attributes and other objects. Depending on the format you choose, it may not be possible for the program to preserve all layout and formatting perfectly, but page-based formats, in general, preserve these properties as closely as possible.
With record-based formats, the emphasis is on data rather than the layout and formatting. However, in some formats such as Microsoft Excel - Data only you will notice that some formatting is exported. Some of the record-based formats are only data-exchange formats.
PDF format is a page-based format. The exported documents are intended for printing and redistribution. PDF format will export both layout and formatting in a manner that is consistent with how the report looks on the Preview tab. PDF format embeds the True Type fonts that appear in the document. (Non-True Type fonts are not supported.) This export format does not support Microsoft font-linking technology which is used to provide support for some extended character sets such as Chinese HKCS. Therefore, the fonts used in the report must contain all of the required glyphs. These URI types are supported for hyperlinks: "http:", "https:" and "mailto:".
Crystal Reports (RPT) Exporting to Crystal Reports format is much like using the Save As feature with the "Save Data with Report" option selected. This format exports (saves) your report with the current data without modifying the original report.
HTML 3.2 and HTML 4.0 HTML export formats are page based. The HTML 4.0 format preserves the layout and formatting of the report by using DHTML. The HTML 3.2 format, however, cannot maintain all of the layout precisely. The HTML 3.2 format is intended for backward compatibility with older browsers that do not support HTML 4.0. All of the images in your report are saved externally and a hyperlink is inserted in the exported HTML output. Therefore, this export format generates more than one file in the output.
Microsoft Excel (97-2003) Microsoft Excel format is a page-based format. This format converts your report contents into Excel cells on a page-by-page basis. Contents from multiple pages are exported to the same Excel worksheet. If a worksheet becomes full and there is more data to export, the export program creates multiple worksheets to accommodate the data. If a report object covers more than one cell, the export program merges cells to represent a report object. Microsoft Excel has a limit of 256 columns in a worksheet; therefore, any report object (or part of it) that is added to cells beyond 256 columns is not exported. This export format retains most of the formatting, but it does not export line and box objects from your report.
Microsoft Excel (97-2003) Data-only Microsoft Excel Data-only, as the name suggests, is a record-based format that concentrates on data. Even so, this format does export most of the formatting, too. Unlike Microsoft Excel format, Microsoft Excel Data-only format does not merge cells each object is added to only one cell. This format can also export certain kinds of summaries in Crystal Reports as Excel functions. The summaries that are supported are SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN and MAX.
To get the best output from Excel export formats, you should design your reports in an Excel-friendly way.
Microsoft Word (97-2003) Microsoft Word is a page-based, exact format that produces an RTF (Rich Text Format) file. The exported file contains text and drawing objects to represent report objects. Individual objects are placed in text frames. This format is intended for use in applications such as fill-out forms where the space for entering text is reserved as empty text objects.
Almost all of the formatting is retained in this export format. Text objects cannot, however, be placed outside the left edge of the page. Therefore, if you have text objects in your report that are placed before the left edge of the printable area, they will be pushed right. (This is most noticeable in reports with wide pages.)
Microsoft Word (97-2003) - Editable The Microsoft Word - Editable format is different from the Microsoft Word format; it is a page-based format, but not all of the layout and formatting are preserved in the output. This format converts all of the report object contents to text lines. Unlike Microsoft Word format, this format does not use text frames. Text formatting is retained, but attributes such as background color, fill pattern, and so on may not be retained. All images in your report are inlined with the textual content and, therefore, the images automatically shift to accommodate text when the document is edited in Microsoft Word. This format does not export line and box objects from your report.
Rich Text Format (RTF) The Rich Text Format (RTF) format is similar to the Microsoft Word (97-2003) format.
Separated Values (CSV) The Separated Values format is a record-based, data-exchange format. It exports the report object contents as a set of values separated by separator and delimiter characters that you specify. (When a comma (,) is used to separate fields, the format is known as Comma Separated Values (CSV); this export format is popular among Microsoft Excel users.)
Like record-style formats, the Separated Values format also creates one line of values for each record in your report. A record contains all of the fields in each section of your report as seen in the Design view. That is, fields in the Report Header section are exported first, followed by the Page Header section, the Group Header section, the Details section, the Group Footer section, the Report Footer section, and finally, the Page Footer section.
The Separated Values format cannot be used to export reports with cross-tabs or OLAP grids; nor can it be used to export reports with sub reports in Page Header or Page Footer sections.
Tab Separated Text (TTX) The Tab Separated Text format is similar to the Text format. This format preserves the layout of your report but with some differences. In the Text format, multi-line text objects are exported to multiple lines. In this format, multi-line text objects are exported in a single line; all string values are surrounded by double quotes (""); and the values themselves are separated by tab characters. TTX files can be opened in Microsoft Excel.
Text Text format is a record-based format. Its output is plain text; therefore formatting is not retained. However, this format can preserve some of your report's layout. Text format assumes that a font of a constant dimension is used throughout the export. The Characters Per Inch (CPI) option specifies the number of characters that can be fit in a linear inch of horizontal space, and thus determines the dimension of the font.
XML XML is used primarily for data exchange. It is a record-based format that uses the Crystal XML Schema.
ZIP The ZIP file format is a popular loss less data compression and archival format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce their file size, or stored as-is. ZIP files have the capacity to be encrypted using different levels of strength. Encryption is the process of transforming information using the AES algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing the specified key. |
