Crystal Reports Smart Tags

Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

Overview
The purpose of this white paper is to demonstrate how you can use Microsoft’s new smart tag
technology to add powerful end user interaction with Crystal Reports objects that are embedded in
Microsoft Office XP documents. End users who receive a document with Crystal Reports Smart Tags
can refresh the report object’s data within the Office XP document itself and they can choose to view the
original report. With Crystal Reports Smart Tags the report data available in the Office XP document is
linked to the original Crystal Report, providing one, consistent source for information for your entire
enterprise.

Contents
WHAT IS A SMART TAG ...........................................................................................................................................................1
CRYSTAL REPORTS SMART TAGS BENEFITS ............................................................................................................................1
HOW CRYSTAL REPORTS USES SMART TAGS ..........................................................................................................................2
USING CRYSTAL REPORTS SMART TAGS WITH OFFICE XP DOCUMENTS .................................................................................2
SETTING UP CRYSTAL REPORTS SMART TAGS ........................................................................................................................2
SCENARIO ...............................................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................................................8

What is a Smart Tag

Microsoft Office XP smart tags are small, XML-based pop-up icons that quickly enable end user access
to powerful context-specific features within certain Office XP applications. Smart tags are a new Office
XP feature in Microsoft Word 2002 and Microsoft Excel 2002, and are available in Microsoft Outlook
2002 when Word is used as the e-mail editor.

Smart tags have two components, a recognizer that can identify certain types of text or objects in a
document as belonging to the smart tag, and an action that provides one or more commands that can
be executed. The Office XP document contains the XML data that identifies the recognizer for a
particular smart tag and points to locally stored smart tag code for the recognizer to provide that
particular smart tag’s list of available commands. Of particular note is that smart tags themselves do
not place any code into a document and cannot be used to spread unauthorized code via Office
documents.

Client side smart tag code is easily installed and registered on client computers. Smart tags support
digital signatures and can be deployed and secured via policy templates. However, if smart tags are
turned off by the user in an Office XP application or via policy no smart tag indicators are displayed.

Crystal Reports Smart Tags Benefits

Crystal Decisions leverages the Office XP smart tag technology to create and distribute smart tags for
use by Crystal Reports 9 and Office XP. Smart tags empower your end users by simplifying the
distribution of key portions of Crystal Reports using familiar Office XP applications. Sharing is made
easy; users simply copy and paste the report objects they want to share. Office XP documents

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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

containing Crystal Reports Smart Tags contain live data linked to the original report, so it is always
reliable and accurate.

Administration of this feature involves installing and registering the Crystal Reports Smart Tags code on
all client computers; no other Crystal components are required for end users to view, refresh, and share
report objects.

How Crystal Reports Uses Smart Tags

Crystal Reports Smart Tags allow you to integrate key report objects into Microsoft Office XP
documents for immediate sharing and refreshing. The report objects that can be recognized by Crystal
Reports Smart Tags are charts, text objects, or field objects. Refer to the table below for details about
which report objects can be pasted into the Office XP applications that support smart tags.

Office XP Application Smart Tag Action Crystal Reports Object Type

Word 2002 View Chart

Refresh Text Object

Field Object

Excel 2002 View Text Object

Refresh Field Object

Outlook 2002 View Chart

Refresh (only when creating a message) Text Object

Field Object

Using Crystal Reports Smart Tags with Office XP Documents

Report developers insert a link to a Crystal report object in Office XP documents by simply copying the
report object in the original Crystal Report (using the Copy Smart Tag right click option) and pasting the
report object into a Word document, Excel work sheet, or Outlook e-mail message. The report object
and its smart tag’s recognizer XML data are embedded in the Office XP document.

When an end user opens an Office XP document containing a Crystal report object it displays the smart
tag indicator, usually a colored dotted line under the object. When the end user hovers over the report
object the smart tag icon displays. The end user can click on the smart tag icon and can select to view
the original Crystal Report from which the data was taken in an .asp or .jsp page (determined by the
original report’s smart tag options), or to refresh the data displayed in the report object in the Office XP
document.

Setting Up Crystal Reports Smart Tags

To use Crystal Reports Smart Tags with report objects Crystal Reports provides defaults for Smart Tag
options on the Smart Tag tab of the Crystal Reports 9 Options dialog box. If Crystal Enterprise Report
Application Server 9 is installed an .asp page for viewing the report is created by default at the location

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 Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

specified by the Smart Tag options defaults; if not you need to manually create an .asp or .jsp file for the
report.

In addition, end users who do not have Crystal Reports installed on their machine must install the
Crystal Reports Smart Tag code, which is contained in the file smarttag.dll, to act on Crystal Reports
Smart Tags in Office XP documents that contain Crystal report objects. In this case if the end user
opens an Office XP document containing a Crystal Reports Smart Tag the smart tag does not display
any report options. Instead, the end user will be given an option to install the smart tag code. If the user
elects to do so the smarttag.dll file is downloaded from http://support.crystaldecisions.com/ and will
prompt the user to install. No other user action is required and once installed the Crystal Reports smart
tag displays the report options.

The smarttag.dll file can be deployed via policy templates, or with Systems Management Server. You
can also download the file to a network server and use administrative policies to redirect users to the
server on your network if your users are working behind a firewall.

Note: If Crystal Reports is installed on the client computer the Crystal Reports Smart Tag
code for Office XP is also installed, automatically.
Scenario
The Xtreme Mountain bike Company holds a contest every quarter and rewards the salesperson with
the greatest quarterly sales.

At the end of each quarter the Sales Manager views her “Employee Sales Report” using Crystal
Reports. This quarter she sees that Ms. King has the greatest sales numbers. The Sales Manager
right clicks the graph in the report and chooses Copy Smart Tag (Fig. 1.1).

The Sales Manager right

clicks the graph in the
report and chooses Copy
Smart Tag.

Fig. 1.1

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 Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

The Sales Manager then opens a new e-mail message to Ms. King in Outlook XP and pastes the copied
smart tag for the graph into it (Fig. 1.2).

Note the smart tag indicator (dotted purple line) under the graph, indicating that the Crystal
Reports Smart Tag recognizes the copied graph as a Crystal Reports Smart Tag
The Sales Manager
pastes the copied smart
tag for the graph into the
e-mail message.

Fig. 1.2

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 Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

The Sales Manager sends the e-mail to Ms. King, who opens the message using Outlook 2002. Ms.
King sees the Crystal Reports Smart Tag when she hovers over the Crystal Report graph (Fig. 1.3).

Ms. King sees the Crystal

Reports Smart Tag when
she hovers over the
Crystal Report graph.

Fig. 1.3

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 Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

If Ms. King has not yet installed the Crystal Report Smart Tag she will only see the “Check for New
Actions” smart tag option (Fig. 1.4). Once Ms. King clicks on the smart tag option it will bring her to the
Crystal Decisions support web site for her to install the Crystal Reports Smart Tag.

If Ms. King has not yet

installed the Crystal
Report Smart Tag she will
only see the “Check for
New Actions” smart tag
option.

Fig. 1.4

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 Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

If Ms. King or her administrator had installed the Crystal Reports Smart Tag previously she would see
the “View Report” option, as well as the default smart tag options (Fig. 1.5).

Note that Outlook does not support the “Refresh” option on the receiver side for charts.
If Ms. King had installed
the Crystal Reports Smart
Tag previously she would
see the “View Report”
option.

Fig. 1.5

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 Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags

Ms. King selects to view the report, which opens the original report in a browser through the DHTML
viewer and enables her to view and analyze the report (Fig. 1.6).

Ms. King selects to view

the report, which opens
the original report in a
browser through the
DHTML viewer.

Fig. 1.6

Conclusion
Crystal Decision’s use of Microsoft Office XP’s new smart tag technology empowers end users to share
and interact with Crystal Reports data in the environment they know best – familiar Microsoft Office XP
applications such as Word, Excel and Outlook. This whitepaper demonstrates the benefits and use of
the Crystal Reports Smart Tag.

For further information and technical specifications for this and other Crystal Reports features please
refer to Crystal Decisions Dev Zone: http://www.crystaldecisions.com/products/dev_zone/default.asp.

**************************************************
The information contained in this document represents the best current view of Crystal Decisions on the issues discussed as of the date of
publication, but should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Crystal Decisions or a guarantee as to the accuracy of any information
presented.

This document is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a guarantee or warranty of any kind. The information is provided AS IS.
CRYSTAL DECISIONS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. Crystal Decisions
will not be liable for any damages (direct, indirect or consequential) to you for your consumption, use or reliance on the information provided herein.

© Copyright 2002 Crystal Decisions, Inc. All rights reserved. Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, and Crystal Decisions are the trademarks or
registered trademarks of Crystal Decisions, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

Specifications and product offerings subject to change without notice.

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