Preview tab

To preview a report before printing it, click Print Preview on the Standard toolbar.

The program gathers the data, makes the necessary calculations, and displays the report in the Preview tab. With the data in place, you can review the spacing and formatting of your report and see the actual results of all your summaries, formula calculations, and record and group selections.

In true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) fashion, you can work directly on this live data, fine-tuning it until the report has the exact look you want.

The program works with data in the following manner:

• the first time the Preview tab is used, it retrieves data from your underlying data source(s) and saves it with the report (unless you have set up the program not to save data)
• from that point on, the program uses the saved data whenever you preview the report unless you specifically refresh it or add a field that requires the program to retrieve new data.

Seagate Crystal Reports provides two views for previewing a report:

• Standard view
• Group Tree view.