I've just realised I don't understand 'references'.

Say you need to add a reference to the Crystal Reports Viewer. Where do you do the install?

If you install the Business Objects Crystal Report Viewer on your development machine - and add a reference to the Viewer from your project - and then publish to a server - does the dll you are referencing get copied to the server too?

Or should you install on the server? And reference it from your dev box? But what if you have a testing server and live server?

Something that is confusing me is that on a development machine I was using until about a week ago, if I go to Start | All Programs there is Business Objects XI Release 2 | Crystal Reports | Crystal Reports X1 Release 2 available.

If I add a reference to the Crystal Reports Viewer - a load of assemblys are added to the web config file. When I publish - it all works okay on the server(s) but, as far as I can see, nothing to do with Business Objects / Crystal Reports Viewer is installed on the server.

If I add a reference to the Microsoft Word Interop thingy on my development machine - and publish it to a server - the server reports 'this reference does not exist on the server' (and I have to install Office on there to make it work on the server)

So, what is difference between the reference to the Crystal Reports Viewer and Microsoft Word Interop?

Hope this is clear and thanks for any help.