The documentation for Windward Reports is among the best I've seen for any software tool. The Getting Started Guide is a short document that explains how to install the program and enter your license key, and how to test the system.

The 25-page Programmer's Guide explains how the system works and walks you through creating a simple template and incorporating it into a program. It then moves on to advanced topics, like creating custom reporting elements and data sources. A FAQ and appendices provide additional information.

A System Administrator's Guide explains in detail how to install and maintain the report server, and the Template Creator's Guide covers template creation in great detail. The programmer's API reference rounds out the documentation.

I'm accustomed to seeing detailed API reference documentation and a simple "Getting Started" guide with most software tools these days. But the amount and the quality of the information that comes with Windward Reports is out of the ordinary. I wish all tool developers would put that much effort into their documentation.

I found a lot to like about Windward Reports, and nothing really to complain about. Installation is quick and painless, and getting started with it was easy. In less than an hour I was able to create a production-quality report from my data. The documentation is well written and complete, and the many samples provided in the installation make finding useful techniques very easy. The client-server model might seem like overkill for a single-user system, but it scales very well. In a large data center, a dedicated reports server or cluster of servers could serve many clients simultaneously.

If you are in the market for a reporting package, you would do well to consider Windward Reports.