Answer found after much digging on Crystal's site. (it was reference #81 returned by the query "Subreports CanGrow"). When using subreports within a detail band, right-click on the details band to split it into Details A and Details B. Do this as many times as are needed to put each subreport into its own detail sub-band. If you keep them all together in one band, the report writer doesn't properly adjust for variable length subreports and text appears on top of other text.