Documentation of Crystal_Reports

[Quibbelmind]

Hi,

I am new to Crystal_Reports, but I have worked with other BI_tools and created corresp. apps for some years. I wonder, in case I'm supposed to create more new Crystal_Reports in this company, how can I document them - one of the big disadvantages of Crystal, afaIk as yet, is the impossibility of creating a documentation of the reports that people without a licence can read, so that management and other stakeholders (like other business_users who'd like to use an existing report) can get an overview of
- how many reports do we have
- what does any given report do
- who uses what report(s)

I can tell you what I do in QlikView - something similar would be my ideal idea: In QlikView, I create a word_documentation for every report there is. These word_documents are stored in a central place on the server so anyone can access them. These are just linked to from the reports - in every report there is a button opening the resp. document.

Can I do anything similar in Crystal_Reports?
(for means of documentation, we already have a three-page request form that anyone who needs a new report is suppused to fill out, but well - business_users who need a new report usually need it fast and/or don't have/take the time to fill out three pages of a request_form, and a written documentation is still not available to everyone unless you scan it and save it ...

Thanks for any proposals how to do this!
Best regards,

Quibbelmind

[Ned Pepper]

One quick way to produce documentation is to select export report and under the export format, choose Report Definition (txt).

[Quibbelmind]

Hi,

I have seen that option before. Thank you for the hint!
Using that, it might be possible to create a documentation in Word or some other format that is accessible to those without a Crystal_licence that I could store in a central place - that is what I am looking for. Linking the report to the documentation is only a nice-to-have.
Thanks a lot!
Best regards,

Quibbelmind

P.S.: Should I somehow mark your answer as correct so others know that this has been answered?