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Output produced using Report Commander may be formatted differently than output produced by the Crystal Reports Designer

Article ID: K00000277
Last Updated: June 10, 2014

Applies To

Report Commander 1
Report Commander 2

Symptoms

When you export or print a report using Report Commander, the output may appear different than when you export the same report using Crystal Reports. This article discusses common reasons for this behavior.

More Information

Report Commander uses Crystal Reports runtime components to produce export files, and therefore should produce the same output that Crystal Reports itself produces. However, differences in configuration and environment may cause Report Commander to produce different formatting.

For example, text and columns may be aligned or spaced slightly differently, or fonts may not appear correctly.

Different Crystal Reports Versions

Report Commander version 1.5 uses Crystal Reports 2008 runtime components. If you are using a different version of Crystal Reports, it is possible that changes between versions of Crystal Reports are responsible for formatting differences. If possible, try exporting the report using Crystal Reports 2008.

Different Printer

If you are running Report Commander on a different computer from where you developed the report, the default printer saved in the report may not be available when Report Commander opens the report. When this happens, Crystal Reports will use the default printer on the computer where Report Commander is running, which may cause shifts in formatting. For example, the new printer may have a different default page size or minimum margins, or may not support the font your report is using.

Missing Fonts

If your report uses any non-system fonts (such as barcode fonts, OCR fonts, or custom typefaces) be sure those fonts are installed on the computer where Report Commander is running.

Other Cases

Other formatting differences may be caused by differences between the Crystal Reports runtime components and the standalone Crystal Reports product. Because Report Commander relies on the runtime components provided by SAP to perform report rendering and exporting, such differences are generally beyond the ability of Arcana Development to resolve.