Crystal Reports: Field Clipping

It seems that every new version of Crystal Reports changes how data is displayed when the field simply isn't wide enough. Until Crystal 7, the data was just clipped by the size of the field on the report. So, you could spend a pretty significant amount of time trying to figure out why the numbers on your report were wrong, only to find out that the field just needed to be made wider.

Crystal 7 introduced a new option that you could finally set to show pound signs when a number was too wide, instead of just dropping the extra digits. Unfortunately, Crystal also set this option, called "Field Clipping", off by default. Even the newer versions of Crystal, 9 and 10, still have this option set to off.

To turn off field clipping and display pound signs when a number is too wide:

File > Options
Fields Tab
Number Button (you should also do the Currency Button)
Number Tab
Customize Button
Take out the check mark in the lower left for "Field Clipping".

Only new reports will be affected. Any existing reports will still have field clipping until you change the numeric and currency fields individually. To change an individual field right-click on the field and select "Format Field". Then click the "Customize" button and take out the checkmark for "Field Clipping".