Printing a multi-page report by Group

[Former Member]

I need some help printing a complex report.

I have designed a 7-page report (mostly text) that groups by employee. It could have thousands of employees within this one report.

I want to print the report so that each 7 pages are grouped together and stapled, so that each employee can be mailed their own 7-page packet.

Is this do-able from the Crystal Designer?

I would appreciate any help.

[ido_millet · Accepted solution]

Not in Designer, but there are 3rd-party Crystal tools (see http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html) that can help.

My [Visual CUT|http://www.milletsoftware.com/visualcutBenefit.htm] software allows you to burst report exports so that each group level 1 becomes a separate export/email/printout.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your reply. I reviewed the Visual CUT description, but I would want to know whether it works for what I need.

Example: I would have 1 report grouped by employee number, with 100 employees. Each employee (group) has a 7 page report, totalling 700 pages in the overall report. I want to be able to send one file to a printing service company so they can print off 100 7-page packets (1 per employee) from that one file.

Could Visual CUT accomplish this? Would the printing service company need a special document reader? Would they just press "print" and their printer would take care of the rest? Any additional description of the process would be helpful to me in communicating the advantages of Visual CUT to my employer, who would be purchasing such software.

Thank you.

[ido_millet · Accepted solution]

It would be more effective to contact the software vendor directly...

[Former Member]

If you are grouping on Employee and want each to start on a odd-numbered page (1,3,5,etc) simply do a conditional new page before on the Employee Group Header for example:

//Condition used to force to a new page

REMAINDER (pagenumber, 2) = 0

//This will force the new group onto a odd-numbered page

ENJOY!!!!

[Former Member]

Thanks, Jerry, but this isn't a problem with page breaks. It's a problem with "chunking" a multi-page report so that when it is printed, each "chunk" (i.e., employee's 7 pages) are grouped and collated together.