Edward:
It's true that creating a parameter is not sufficient to make Crystal ask you to specify the parameter when you run the report. You have to make use of the parameter.

You've used the parameter in the title section successfully in the Crystal designer. Usually you see the same behavior when you are designing/testing as you do when you run the report. It's strange that you see different behaviour.

Have you used the Date range parameter in the record selection criteria? In my experience, that's always sufficient to force Crystal to ask for input.