Operation Manual

Multiple Section Reports

Form letters

Crystal Reports User’s Guide 221

This formula divides each record number by 5. If the division produces a

remainder, it suppresses the blank section. But if the division produces

no remainder, a zero (which it will for every fifth record printed), the

program prints the second section, thus inserting a blank line.

Note: To insert a blank line under different conditions, you can modify your

formula appropriately. See “Working with conditional formatting” on page 270.

Form letters

While form letters themselves are not necessarily multi-section reports, they

are often used in multi-section reports to generate custom mailings. The topic

“Printing conditional messages in form letters” on page 228, explains how to

use multiple form letters or multiple versions of the same form letter for

custom mailings.

Form letters often use text objects to hold the content of the report. The

following sections provide an introduction to text objects and demonstrate

how to use them in form letters.

Working with text objects

You will use many of the capabilities of text objects when creating form letters.

A brief discussion of text objects should make it easier for you to create the

form letter in the next section. Some things to consider are:

• A text object can contain both text and fields; you will use both in this

example.

• You can resize text objects; you will be resizing the text object so that it

prints as a letter.

Text objects operate in two modes:

• Move/Resize mode

• Edit mode

Move/Resize mode

When the object is in the move/resize mode, it appears as a broken line frame

with resizing handles.