I am working on this windows app that uses Crystal Reports. I've never used it before and I thought "Hey! I could learn something new". So I opened this .rpt file in Visual Studio 2003 and I got the most incomprehensible interface ever. I mean, I will have to invest some hours just to understand what the report interface is all about.

But anyway, I thought I would take an existing report and then just change something, like adding a new field. I went with the mouse on an empty space, right click, context menu, Insert... I could insert text. I could insert Special Fields (report data like number of the page, creation date and so on). I could insert Fields. Only that option was disabled! I've tried every option in the context menu, no avail.

Finally I've decided I am to dumb to figure it out, I went to man's best friend: Google! The answer found in an obscure forum was:
- Go to View (in Visual Studio 2003)
- click Other Windows
- click Document Outline

Now a Field Explorer window is open and I can see all fields and drag them to the report. That was it! :-/

Comments

Anonymous

thanks. Since yesterday i was looking for this....

Anonymous

Maraxus

Thanks! Took me a while to find it when you've provided the light :)

Maraxus

Anonymous

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I'm still supporting a legacy app and ran into the same problem. This simple post of yours has probably saved me hours.

Anonymous

Eclectricz

Well done on figuring that one out. I spun in circles for about 45 mins before I found your post.

Eclectricz

Anonymous

It is 2008 and this entry is still helping (today it helped me, after re-installing VB twice trying to make the damn fields show...)

Anonymous

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