exporting reports

[audrey]

I need help. I have always exported reports to Word, from all modules, Acctg, Membership, etc. so that I could edit them. In the old PowerChurch , I could edit on the PowerChurch report screen, then in the newer versions I could export from Membership or Accounting, and do my editing there, but with Version 9 this is impossible. Someone please help me & my co workers do this. If I can't resolved this, my committee members will recommend that I uninstall version 9. PLLLLLLLLEASE don't fix things that aren't broken.

[NeilZ]

I need help. I have always exported reports to Word, from all modules, Acctg, Membership, etc. so that I could edit them. In the old PowerChurch , I could edit on the PowerChurch report screen, then in the newer versions I could export from Membership or Accounting, and do my editing there, but with Version 9 this is impossible. Someone please help me & my co workers do this. If I can't resolved this, my committee members will recommend that I uninstall version 9. PLLLLLLLLEASE don't fix things that aren't broken.

They didn't fix somethign that was not broken, the change is a result of having to move to the newer version of Seagate Crystal Reports. The older verion of Crystal Reports was no longer being supported, and in order for the PC+ folks to include Crystal Reports with Powerchurch, they had to upgrade to this new version. Unfortunately, it does create Text Boxes when exporting reports to Word, rather than editable text.

As long as you remember that it is a TEXT BOX in Word, you should be able to remove and/or edit the labels.

However, without knowing exactly what you want to edit, I can't be too specific about how to do the changes you want.

[audrey]

I want to be able to add & remove text, numbers, etc. from all reports as I was able to in earlier versions.

[NeilZ]

I want to be able to add & remove text, numbers, etc. from all reports as I was able to in earlier versions.

Are there certain words or areas that need to be removed ?? Again, as a text box, you should be able to do this by selecting the text box and deleting it. However, it won't be exactly as it wasin earlier versions.

Which reports are you talking about, and what exactly in the reports need to be removed?

[audrey]

For instance I like to export the church directory into Word, then highlight and cut & paste different peoples names for committee directory.

[audrey]

OK, here is another for instance: I have to run a Balance Sheet on 1 fund, (which happens to be designated funds and CD's) and beside it I have to indicate what the interest is used for. This would have been easy in word. Now, I have to type it on a typewritter.

[NeilZ]

For instance I like to export the church directory into Word, then highlight and cut & paste different peoples names for committee directory.

You should still be able to do this .. just remember these are text boxes, and you have to select the box and do a copy and paste.

[NeilZ]

OK, here is another for instance: I have to run a Balance Sheet on 1 fund, (which happens to be designated funds and CD's) and beside it I have to indicate what the interest is used for. This would have been easy in word. Now, I have to type it on a typewritter.

Again, I just was able to do this by inserting a new text box. Alternatively, you could export as text, then you can format to whatever form you like.

I'm not saying it doesn't take a bit more time, its just that it can be done, and eventually it will become very easy to do. If you've used MS Publisher, the concept is quite similar.

[Mike_P]

I don’t think the problem is with text boxes.

When I use Word2000 to open a .DOC file exported from Crystal Reports in PC+9, each item on the report in Word is in its own “frame.” This creates a very, very unfriendly document to edit. Frames were designed to create web pages, not word processor documents.

Here is a quote from Word2000 Help: “You can have as many frames in a frames page as you want. The more frames you have on a Web page, the more complicated the navigation becomes.” No kidding!

I have tried importing as .RTF into Word, same thing – all in frames, nearly useless to edit.
I have tried importing as .TXT into Word, and all the formatting is lost, might as well redo it from scratch.
I have tried exporting as .XLS then copy and paste into Word, I get a table in Word that I can use at least, but why should I have to do so many extra steps. This is not an upgrade, this is extra work!

I want to be able to combine several small reports onto a one page word processor document without jumping through so many hoops. Looks like our finance committee will be getting multiple pages instead of one page with less information on it than I usually provide.

This is now the second issue I have had relating to the “upgrade” of Crystal Reports running under PC+9. I hope someone in program development is listening. This has been the most troublesome upgrade our church has ever had, mostly relating to Crystal Reports.

Mike P.
1.0gHz PIII, 256 MB RAM, Win98SE

[NeilZ]

I don’t think the problem is with text boxes.

When I use Word2000 to open a .DOC file exported from Crystal Reports in PC+9, each item on the report in Word is in its own “frame.” This creates a very, very unfriendly document to edit. Frames were designed to create web pages, not word processor documents.

Here is a quote from Word2000 Help: “You can have as many frames in a frames page as you want. The more frames you have on a Web page, the more complicated the navigation becomes.” No kidding!

I have tried importing as .RTF into Word, same thing – all in frames, nearly useless to edit.
I have tried importing as .TXT into Word, and all the formatting is lost, might as well redo it from scratch.
I have tried exporting as .XLS then copy and paste into Word, I get a table in Word that I can use at least, but why should I have to do so many extra steps. This is not an upgrade, this is extra work!

I want to be able to combine several small reports onto a one page word processor document without jumping through so many hoops. Looks like our finance committee will be getting multiple pages instead of one page with less information on it than I usually provide.

This is now the second issue I have had relating to the “upgrade” of Crystal Reports running under PC+9. I hope someone in program development is listening. This has been the most troublesome upgrade our church has ever had, mostly relating to Crystal Reports.

Mike P.
1.0gHz PIII, 256 MB RAM, Win98SE

I've edited this in Office XP, and Office 2003 ... to me they are text boxes, and as I mentioned previously, this is the same functionality as is used in MS Publisher. They can be edited, it just takes some getting used to.

As far as what the PC+ people can do, not much. Business Objects is not supporting Crystal Reports 8.5 any longer so they can't backup, and they've just released version 11 .

[audrey]

To Mike: Thank you, thank you , thank you. You hit it right on the head. I have been in touch with PowerChurch and, lo and behold, the tech informed me that many other people have complained about this very problem.

To Neil: I appreciate what you are trying to say, but when people (churches) spend money on upgrades, they want it to be upgraded. Your reply of " They can be edited, it just takes some getting used to", is an understatment. I use Publisher everyday, and believe me this is not the same at all, as this has mutilple text boxes on a line. Who has the time to do this extra editing? Thanks

[/i]

[NeilZ]

To Neil: I appreciate what you are trying to say, but when people (churches) spend money on upgrades, they want it to be upgraded. Your reply of " They can be edited, it just takes some getting used to", is an understatment. I use Publisher everyday, and believe me this is not the same at all, as this has mutilple text boxes on a line. Who has the time to do this extra editing? Thanks

[/i]

My point is this ... there may not be much that they can do as the export function is built into Crystal Reports. It exports each element as a separate text box, and there is no way to change that. This was brought up during the beta of versoin 9.0, and they tried to adjust it but couldn't.

The alternative is to see if they can create a personalized report format just for you. I'm not sure what they charge, but it may be an option.

[Jeff]

Audrey and Mike,

Not to be defensive, but there are several reasons why changes have to be made in the program. Neil is right about part of the reasons we needed to upgrade. Another reason is we wanted to add the options of exporting reports to HTML and PDF. PDF was especially important because without this export type we would not be able to offer the e-mail contributions statements option and e-mail reports options. Many of our competitors are offering this option and we needed to add it to the program to remain competitive with them.

We did know about the change Crystal Reports did make with respect to the Word export. It was listed in their update literature as a feature enhancement. From Crystal's point of view, the new exported report retains much more of the formatting than the prior Word export did. In fact, we had several users complain to us that the Word export did not have all the formatting of the original report in PowerChurch. For example in Version 8 & 8.5 when you exported a Balance Sheet all the subtotal and total lines were missing in Word. Also the horizontal lines at the top of each page were not there as well. This was reported as a "bug" by many users.

Crystal Reports just released this week version 11. As a new feature in it they now have an "editable" Word export. We have spent time this week to see if we could upgrade to it mid-version in 9, but unfortunately we are not going to be able to for a couple of reasons. They have decided to only allow the editable Word export in their dotnet runtime version. We can't use the dotnet version with FoxPro, the language we write PowerChurch in. The tech we e-mailed about this said this might be available in a future service pack. No time frame was given for this possible change however, and right now their official position is this export type is not available in the interface we are using. Even bigger problem, Crystal Reports 11 will only run on Windows 2000 or Windows XP. We still have too many users running Windows 98 & ME to even consider making Windows 2000 the minimum system requirement.

As a suggestion Audrey, you mentioned two cases where you need to change the reports. First is the need for a committee directory. There is already an Address & Phone Directory report in Activity & Skills. This report was designed to be used as a directory for a Sunday school classes or committees. Your second example of adding notes to the Balance Sheet. Could this information be provided on separate page? It doesn't sound like this information changes very often and this would save you from having to make this change each month on the report.

[audrey]

Dear Jeff, thanks for your advice, but when I gave those examples of exported documents, I simplified it. There are 3 of us, working in 3 different modules, and we all export for different reasons. It was a feature of PowerChurch that we used daily. Thanks anyway.

[gary]

Re: Mike's comment: When I use Word2000 to open a .DOC file exported from Crystal Reports in PC+9, each item on the report in Word is in its own “frame.” This creates a very, very unfriendly document to edit. Frames were designed to create web pages, not word processor documents.

I am a new user and our church is willing to give PowerChurch a try, but I am finding it very difficult to export into Word and make a report look like I want it to look. I am finding this to be a major shortcoming of this product; are there any plans to fix this?

Gary