Is there anyplace or any publication we can study to learn more about this report writer?  With Crystal there were numerous books on the market and available for providing details and extensive examples of how to accomplish more complex reporting.  Is there anything like this for Cognos or is it completely proprietary?

The two of us here that use Report Builder (Cognos) have only trained in the one-day seminar at YouCon08.  We can generate simple lists and cross-tabs easy enough, but to recreate reports we had originally created in Crystal or some of the newer management reports being requested with specific page-breaking and detailed formatting and subreports, etc., we are lost and extremely frustrated.  Cognos seems neither intuitive nor flexible.  It is not WYSIWIG by any means and all Help, even the "Advanced Report Builder Tour" and "Getting Started" selections under Help, simply point to the Daptiv Help menu.

I apologize.  I don't intend to whine.  Is there any other place or source for further training and detailed help in using this report writer.  We are nearly ready to go back to Crystal and the A.R.E.

Cognos is huge.  http://www.cognos.com/

It is a mainstream tool that is integrated into our product so it's not prorietary but it is an integration..  There are professional training courses, books and tons of online resources for Cognos that would enhance your experience with the Cognos that is integrated into our product.  Daptiv offers an introduction course to our Advanced Report Builder and soon we will offer further, more advanced training beyond the indroduction course - the benefit will be a better understanding of the data, but writing a report and the Cognos featureset is the same from nearly any instructor because it is the same tool.*

 Search Amazon for "Cognos", search google for "Cognos Books".  If you can't find any I'll post up links, but I know Amazon returned the usual fare of How To's and the typical Dummy series.

* There are some features not yet integrated in our use of Cognos and I'm talking version 8 compared to version 8.  If you take some other version training you're gonna get different info.

 Cognos also has it's own manuals which I thought we made available too - I'll check on that and see if I am allowed to link them up here.  Hang in there - there are resources out there - plenty, but the hard part is our data itself which is pretty comprehensive on Daptiv's native online help.

p.s.  You're not whining - these are comments that our company needs to hear so that we can either provide the resources (which we ramping up on) in house or set expecations more precisely about what you are getting, and where you can go for further resources - much like we did with Crystal.

John,

We are also looking for some good resources.  I contacted a person who wrote "Cognos for Dummies" and finally got a copy, but much to my dismay, it was focused on one target solution and one customer.  It had little value for me.  Most of what I have learned has been trial and error or asking others.  I have kept some tips and hopefully soon we will gather our tips and share them. 

Here is a new guide recomended by Cognos:  http://www.cognosbooks.com/consumer.php  I haven't looked at it, but it has good reviews.

All,

"Here is a new guide recomended by Cognos:  http://www.cognosbooks.com/consumer.php  I haven't looked at it, but it has good reviews."

I ordered the book on Amazon and ended up returning it because it is rather basic. I'd like to see books woth more specifics on the report writer.

David

JGross@DIB:

even the "Advanced Report Builder Tour" and "Getting Started" selections under Help, simply point to the Daptiv Help menu.

I am just getting into using ARB and saw the problem with the "tour".  Is this by design?