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Crystal Reports: A Beginner's Guide | 
| Author: David Mcamis
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $19.79
You Save: $10.20 (34%)
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 112702
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 486
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0072193263
Dewey Decimal Number: 004
UPC: 783254037915
EAN: 9780072193268
Publication Date: December 3, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Learn to create presentation-quality reports using this practical introductory guide--even if you're a novice. You'll find all the information you need to get up and running with this data analysis tool and learn how to format data, generate reports, create Web-based reports, and much more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 The best Crystal Reports book on the market May 5, 2002
45 out of 47 found this review helpful
When I began to use Crystal Reports 4 years ago, there was only one book on the market, which is Douglas Wolf's "Crystal Reports 6 for Dummies". It took me for a while to overcome the bad feeling to join the "Dummy Camp". Well, it's worth to bear the insult. To separate from the "Dummy Camp", I bought George Peck's thick book "Crystal Reports 7: The Complete Reference". To be fair, it's not the right book for learnning Crystal Reports, but a good book for reference. I kept it for more than 2 years, but only used less than 1/3 of it. When I moved to Crystal Reports' Version 8 one year ago, I bought Jill Howe's "Prima's Guide to Seagate Crystal Reports 8" for new taste. I returned it to bookstore in a week. It really disappointed me too much for lack of details. When I saw David McAmis' "Beginner's Guide", I started to wonder if the level is too low to me. Since I didn't want to have another book from Peck, I gave this book a try. It turned to be a good experience. I strongly recommend this book to anybody who is looking for his/her first Crystal Reports book, or a systematic refresher on Version 8.0 or 8.5 in short time. However, this book does have its downside: no advanced topics (for instance, working with Visual Basic or SQL Server's stored procedures), poor proof-reading, and unmatched screen-shoots. However, those are not author's fault. I made my mind to give this book 4.5 stars, but "upgraded" it as 5 - Amazon doesn't allow 4.5.
A great book January 16, 2002
26 out of 27 found this review helpful
If you are an absolute beginner with Crystal Reports, this is the book for you. I have no experience in databases (except for Access and Excel), and I've been able to get going VERY quickly with Crystal, creating reports with graphs, totals and some formulas (although I need more practice). The book is easy to follow, but it doesn't help you with your own database-- you may find many skeletons in the closet when you try to find data within your own database... bad data, mixed up data entry, empty fields. Crystal won't fix any of those problems, but at least you can see what's in there.
Its a great little book and maybe one day I will be ready for the big thick one I looked at, but not just yet!
 This book [is bad] August 21, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book needs some serious editing
Right now I'm on Chapter 4 and so far this book is terrible in regards to the Projects. The project instructions don't correspond with the results intended and shown. For example, the instructions say open the Customer by Country report, but then it says 'your report should look like this' and shows you an entirely different report! And sometimes the report you worked on doesn't even work for the task you're trying to learn. The author must have had his friends write the other customer reviews. Don't buy this book! It's just unfortunate though that there aren't many choices.
Not What I Wanted or Expected May 27, 2004
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm afraid I have to agree with the review from "A reader from Cupertino, CA" - I, too, am on Chapter 4 and am frustrated beyond belief because my reports look very little like the examples in the book so far. In the case of the second tutorial in chapter 4, again the other reviewer is correct - it's not even the same report!I bought "A Beginner's Guide to JavaScript" by the same company and was thrilled with it. It was clear, concise and had a "mini-project" at the end of each chapter for the reader to complete to ensure mastery of the concept being taught. I was expecting the same thing with this book, and am sorely disappointed. The explaination of each topic is general at best, incorrect at worst, the tutorials are simplistic and don't include half the information being covered in each chapter, if indeed a tutorial exists at all. I need to get up to speed on Crystal Reports in a fairly short period of time, and be able to generate some fairly sophisticated reports. This book is becoming a hindrance to that goal.
 Easy reading and very helpful April 12, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book read very easily. he software comes with a sample DB that the book uses which is great. You may find certain reduncies when working on each chapters examples but its so the reader can jump to any chapter. The book is set up so you dont have to staart from the beginning. It took me a little over a month to finish reading the book simply because the software was at the job. You really need the software to make sense of it.
I only wished it delved deeper into table and formulas. But its a beginners book. I recommend it hands down as a starter book
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