2/19/2003 4:27 PM Copyright 2003 Crystal Decisions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Crystal Reports
Removing blank pages and large blank spaces in a report
Overview
When previewing a report, extra blank pages or large blank space appear on the
report. How can you remove these from a report? This document includes
solutions and workarounds to design a report without extraneous pages or space.
NOTE This document contains solutions that had been originally published in the knowledge
base articles c2002092 and c2008374.

Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................ 2
SCENARIO ONE: BLANK PAGE IN THE REPORT HEADER ................................ 2
SCENARIO TWO: BLANK PAGE IN THE REPORT HEADER................................ 2
SCENARIO THREE: BLANK PAGE BEFORE THE FIRST SECTION........................ 3
SCENARIO FOUR: BLANK SPACE AFTER THE REPORT HEADER...................... 4
SCENARIO FIVE: BLANK SPACE BEFORE A SECTION...................................... 4
SCENARIO SIX: BLANK SPACES APPEAR BETWEEN SECTIONS........................ 4
CONTACTING CRYSTAL DECISIONS FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT...................... 5

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Introduction
Different scenarios caused by section or group formatting options are described
in this document. Common formatting options that inadvertently cause extra
blank pages or large blank space to appear in a report are:
New Page After
New Page Before
Keep Section Together
Keep Object Together
Keep Group Together
Print At Bottom of Page
Refer to the solution based on the scenario that best describes what appears on
your report.
Scenario one: Blank page in the Report Header
Description:
The report displays a blank page in the Report Header ahead of displaying the
report data.
Cause:
The conditions that cause the blank page in the Report Header to occur are:
The first group level is formatted with Keep Group Together.
The first group displays more records than there is space available on the
first page.
Solution:
To prevent a blank page in the Report Header from appearing, follow these
steps:
1. From the Report menu, select Change Group Expert.
2. In the Change Group Expert dialog box, select the first group and click the
Options button.
3. Unselect the Keep Group Together check box.
4. If there are multiple group levels, you may need to repeat steps 1 to 3.
Upon previewing the report, the first group will appear immediately and the
blank page in the Report Header will be removed.
Scenario two: Blank page in the Report Header
Description:
Although the Keep Group Together option has been unselected for all the
group levels as described in scenario one, the report continues to display a blank
page in the Report Header ahead of displaying the report data.
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Cause:
The conditions that cause the blank page to continue to appear are:
There is an object such as a subreport , picture, or text object in the report.
The object is too large to fit on the first page.
The object is formatted with the Keep Together option.
Solution:
To prevent a blank page from appearing, follow these steps:
1. In Design view, right-click the object and select Format.<>. For
example: Format Subreport, Format Text Object, Format Graphic
2. In the Format Editor dialog box, click the Common tab.
3. Unselect the Keep Object Together check box.
Upon previewing the report, the blank page in the Report Header will be
removed.
Scenario three: Blank page before the first section
Description:
A blank page appears before the first section of the report.
Cause:
At least one section of the report is formatted with the New Page Before option
selected. Therefore, each time this section prints, it starts on a new page.
Although this is the desired affect for the subsequent sections of the report, a
new page should not print before the first instance of this section.
Solution:
To prevent a blank page from appearing before the first section, follow these
steps:
1. From the Format menu, select Section.
2. In the Section Expert dialog box, select the section with the New Page
Before check box enabled.
3. Click the formula button (X+2) to type in the following conditional
formatting formula:

//This conditional formatting formula instructs a new page
//to print except for the first record.
Not OnFirstRecord
Upon completing these steps, the report will display each section on a new page
except for the first one. This removes the blank page before the first section.
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Scenario four: Blank space after the Report Header
Description:
A blank space appears after the Report Header section. This causes the report
data to start printing on the second page.
Cause:
This occurs when the Report Header section is formatted to have the New Page
After check box enabled.
Solution:
To prevent a blank space from appearing after the Report Header section, follow
these steps:
1. From the Format menu, select Section.
2. In the Section Expert dialog box, select the Report Header and disable the
New Page After check box.
Upon previewing the report, a blank space will not appear after the Report
Header section.
Scenario five: Blank space before a section
Description:
A blank space or page appears before a section of the report.
Cause:
This occurs if a section is formatted with the Keep Together option enabled and
that section contains more records than will fit on the remaining area of a page.
Solution:
To prevent a blank space from appearing before a section, follow these steps:
1. From the Format menu, select Section.
2. In the Section Expert dialog box, select the Report Header and disable the
Keep Together check box.
3. Repeat step 2 for any section with the Keep Together option that causes a
blank space from appearing.
Upon previewing the report, a blank space has been removed from appearing
before the section.
Scenario six: Blank spaces appear between sections
Description:
Blank spaces appear between sections of the report.
Cause:
This occurs when a section is formatted with the Print at Bottom of Page
option enabled.
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Solution:
To prevent blank spaces from printing between sections, follow these steps:
1. From the Format menu, select Section.
2. In the Section Expert dialog box, disable the Print at Bottom of Page for
the section causing the blank space.
3. Repeat step 2 for any section with the Print at Bottom of Page option that
causes a blank space from appearing.
Upon previewing the report, the blank space between sections is removed.
NOTE If the report contains a subreport, it will be necessary to edit the subreport and check to
see if any of the formatting options in the above mentioned scenarios are causing the
blank page or space to appear.

The scenarios discussed in this article are the most common causes of why a
report contains an extra blank page or a large blank space.
Contacting Crystal Decisions for Technical Support
We recommend that you refer to the product documentation and that you visit
our Technical Support web site for more resources.
Self-serve Support:
http://support.crystaldecisions.com/
Email Support:
http://support.crystaldecisions.com/support/answers.asp
Telephone Support:
http://www.crystaldecisions.com/contact/support.asp