Eclipse uses report files written in Crystal Reports™ to get information out of the database and present it in a well designed, printable format. The report files live in two places: the REPORTS folder and the TEMPLATE folder. The former holds most of the Eclipse reports and they are the ones that you run from the File / Print menu; the later holds the files which paste information into the Document Editor or Microsoft’s Word™. All report files have an .RPT file extension.

There are almost 100 standard reports which come with Eclipse and they fall into 3 categories:

* Public reports, such as Quotations, Delivery Notes, Invoice and Purchase Orders
* Internal reports, such as Stock Lists, Customer list
* Management reports, such as Usage lists, Income reports.

The reports are pre-installed and each print menu is configured for reports which are appropriate to the module or page in Eclipse that you are currently working on. The Menu Captions for the reports are NOT the same as reports’ filename, and it is possible to change the Menu Captions in the Eclipse Configuration Utility.

You do not need to have Crystal Reports installed on your machine to print reports from Eclipse; but if you wish to modify any reports or add new ones to the print menus, you will need to install it on at least one of your workstations. Crystal Reports can be a bit daunting when you first open a report file and it can take some time to develop advanced skills in using this product; however, most users who are competent with Office products like PowerPoint should be able to quickly grasp basic functions like inserting fields, changing layouts and fonts, etc.

To locate a report that you want to change, leave your mouse over the menu item in Eclipse that you use to print the report; you should see a 'hint' or 'tooltip' that gives you the full path to the file you need to open with Crystal Reports.