Karen: I'm thinking the problem here is an inside-the-box attachment to Excel, because that is what the client knows.
Time to escape the spreadsheet box. Why not develop and distribute an R:Base run-time app where each factory: 1) Receives the exported data directly into local tables; 2) Formats and prints reports locally for hard-copy distribution and markup, if that's how they do it, and/or: 3) Makes their data changes/additions through the local interface; 4) Exports the data back to the mothership. Eliminates all the fooling around with manual reformatting, eliminates data duplication, preserves the integrity of the information and helps pay the overhead in Murraysville. They'll thank you. Thoughts? Bruce Chitiea SafeSectors, Inc. > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Reports to Excel > From: [email protected] > Date: Wed, March 10, 2010 6:51 am > To: [email protected] (RBASE-L Mailing List) > > > Marco: They're using 2007. > > As mentioned before, I cannot use the PDF output because the factories type > things into columns in the spreadsheet and then return the spreadsheets > back. If you haven't tried this yet yourself, it is difficult to design a > "normal" looking report and have it be able to output to the xls format right > from the start. You have to fiddle around with field sizes and alignments, > fonts that work and don't work... So that's how I started the thread, asking > for tried-and-true "tips" that would assure me that I could design an RBase > report to print to the xls format, with different fonts, break headers, > break footers, etc.... Bill Downall sent me the syntax for an output command > that he uses. Bob Thompson gave me some tips, like making sure autosize is > turned off for all fields, align all headers with the data columns and make > sure the located widths are the same, etc... Bob said that he had to > carefully check the data because even though it looked okay he would find > some data > being dropped; making fields bigger or taller would bring the data back. > So it seems that at least 2 people have been able to successfully get this > to work. > > Karen > > > > Which Excel 2003, 2007 are the people using ? > > > > By the way why are you not using the R:BASE Report features and have the > > output for all 100 factories on screen in pdf or in xls format for the > > customer ? I am sure this is possible for users to choice from screen or by > > automatic procedure to make 100 excel sheets for the 100 factories in > > R:BASE > > > > Marco > >
