The Output to setting on the Output page of the Reports Explorer determines what happens when you click the Print button; the default output destination is Printer. To output to a file, select File; in this case, the Print button appears as Process instead of Print. To email a report, choose Email; in this case, the Print button appears as Send instead of Print. The Preview button always sends the report to the screen, regardless of how the Output to option is set.

Printing a Report

Stonefield Query will normally print to your default Windows printer. To select a different printer, click the Printer button to bring up the Printer dialog. You can also choose Print Setup from the File menu. The box beside the button shows the current printer.

Outputing a Report to a File

To output a report to a file, select File in the Output to option.

The File button allows you to select which type of file to create, as well as the file name and location. Clicking this button brings up the Output to File dialog.

Select the type of file to output to from the Save as type drop-down list. The choices are:

• Delimited: this outputs the fields that appear in the report to a delimited (also known as comma-separated values or CSV) text file. Each field in the file only takes up as much space as needed, and a comma is used to separate fields. Records are terminated with a carriage return. The default extension for a delimited file is CSV. This output type is not available for cross-tab reports.

• Image - BMP: this outputs the report to a bitmap image file. Note that since an image can contain only one page, the file name you specify is used as the "base" name. Each report page is output to a different file with the base name and the page number as a suffix. For example, if you specify "Customers.BMP" as the file name, the first page of the report is output to "Customer0001.BMP," the second to "Customer0002.BMP," and so forth. The default extension is BMP.

• Image - GIF: this outputs the report to a GIF image file. As with BMP output, each report page is output to a different file with the base name and the page number as a suffix. The default extension is GIF.

• Image - JPEG: this outputs the report to a JPEG image file. As with BMP output, each report page is output to a different file with the base name and the page number as a suffix. The default extension is JPG.

• Image - PNG: this outputs the report to a PNG image file. As with BMP output, each report page is output to a different file with the base name and the page number as a suffix. The default extension is PNG.

• Image - TIFF: this outputs the report to a TIFF image file. Unlike other image formats, all report pages are output to a single, multi-page TIFF file. The default extension is TIFF.

• Microsoft Excel - Data Only: this outputs the fields that appear in the report to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with minimal formatting. Note that versions of Excel earlier than Excel 97 display only the first 16,384 rows and cannot open files containing more than 32,767 rows. You will get a warning if you try to output more than 1,048,576 rows to a Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheet (65,535 rows for earlier versions), since that's the maximum limit for Excel. The default extension for an Excel file is XLS, but it will automatically change the file extension to "XLSX" if Excel 2007 is installed on your system because Excel requires that. This output type is not available for cross-tab reports.

• Microsoft Excel - Full Format: this outputs to a Microsoft Excel 2000 or later spreadsheet but reproduces the layout of the report as closely as possible, including formatting and calculated fields. The default extension for an Excel file is XLS.

• Microsoft Word: this outputs the report to a Microsoft Word 2000 or later document with the same layout as the report. The default extension for a Word file is DOC.

• OpenOffice Calc: this outputs the report to an OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet. The default extension is ODS.

• OpenOffice Writer: this outputs the report to an OpenOffice Writer document. The default extension is ODT.

• PDF: select this to output to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. This type of file can be opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader or other PDF reader applications. The default extension for a PDF file is PDF.

• Rich Text Format: this outputs to a Rich Text Format (RTF) file. This type of file can be opened in many types of word processors. The default extension for an RTF file is RTF. This output type is not available for chart reports.

• Spreadsheet: this outputs the report to an HTML file formatted so it can be opened in a spreadsheet program such as Excel. The default extension for these files is XLS. This output type is not available for cross-tab reports.

• Table: this outputs the fields that appear in the report to a DBF file. The default extension for a table is DBF. This output type is not available for cross-tab reports.

• Text: this outputs the fields that appear in the report to a text file. The text file is formatted as fixed-length fields, meaning that each field takes up a fixed amount of space and there are no separators between fields. Records are terminated with a carriage return. The default extension for a text file is TXT. This output type is not available for cross-tab reports.

• Web Page: this outputs the report to a Web page (HTML) file with the same layout as the report. The default extension for a Web page file is HTM.

• XML: this outputs the fields that appear in the report to an XML (eXtendible Markup Language) document. The default extension for an XML file is XML. This output type is not available for cross-tab reports.

• XPS: this outputs the report to an XML Paper Specification file. You need an XPS document viewer to preview XPS documents. Windows Vista includes such a viewer, and you can download one from http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx if you are using earlier versions of Windows. The default extension is XPS.
  

After selecting the file type, enter a name for the file. You can also specify a location for this file using standard File dialog operations. Once you have specified a name and location, click the Save button to accept the file type, name, and location or Cancel to cancel the changes. If the file you selected already exists, you are asked if you want to overwrite it. If you choose Save, the name and location of the file appears beside the File button in the Reports Explorer. Note: to actually create the file, click the Process button in the toolbar.

If you have not activated Stonefield Query, certain output types will only output 20 or less records. These output types are Delimited, Microsoft Excel - Data Only, Spreadsheet, Table, Text, and XML.

If the Display file after creation option is turned on, the file is displayed in its usual editor after it's been created. For example, if you output to an Excel document, the document is automatically opened in Excel.

Turn Add timestamp to file name on to add a timestamp to the file name, using the format "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS." For example, if the file name you choose is "My Report.PDF" and you run the report at 1:17 p.m. on March 25, 2009, the actual name of the file is "My Report 20090325131737.PDF." This is useful if you output the report several times and don't want each run to overwrite the same file.

If you turn Output each group as a separate file on, each group in the report is output as a separate file, with the file name being the name you chose followed by the group value. For example, if you have a report showing customers grouped by country and specify "Customers.PDF" as the file name, turning this option on results in files named "Customers Argentina.PDF" (including only customers from Argentina), "Customers Austria.PDF" (including only customers from Austria), and so on. This is useful if, for example, you want to create an invoice for each customer without having to run an invoice report multiple times, each with a filter on a different customer name.

Emailing a Report

To email a report, select Email in the Output to option.

The File button allows you to select which type of file to output, as well as the file name and location. You have the same set of options as described above for this button. If you do not specify a file name or file type, Stonefield Query will create a PDF file with the same name as the report.

Turn the Erase file after email sent option off if you don't want the file erased after the email is sent.

Turn Add timestamp to file name on to add a timestamp to the file name, using the format "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS." For example, if the file name you choose is "My Report.PDF" and you run the report at 1:17 p.m. on March 25, 2009, the actual name of the file is "My Report 20090325131737.PDF." This is useful if you output the report several times and don't want each run to overwrite the same file. This option is disabled if Erase file after email sent is turned on.

If you turn Output each group as a separate file on, each group in the report is output as a separate file, with the file name being the name you chose followed by the group value. For example, if you have a report showing customers grouped by country and specify "Customers.PDF" as the file name, turning this option on results in files named "Customers Argentina.PDF" (including only customers from Argentina), "Customers Austria.PDF" (including only customers from Austria), and so on. This is useful if, for example, you want to create an invoice for each customer without having to run an invoice report multiple times, each with a filter on a different customer name.

The Get email address from option, which is only available if Output each group as a separate file is turned on, uses a field from the report as the email address to send the group's file to. To follow the example from the previous item, suppose you wanted to email an invoice to each customer. Make sure the report includes the field containing the customer's email address, even if the Display this field in the report setting is turned off for that field, then turn on Get email address from and select the field containing the email address from the drop-down list beside this option. This will create one file for each group and email that file to the address indicated in the field you select.

To specify the recipients, either type their email addresses in the To text box or click the button beside that box and select the desired email addresses from the dialog that appears. The addresses in this dialog come from the recipients of reports you have previously emailed or by importing email addresses from an email program such as Microsoft Outlook.

BCC contains the email addresses of "blind carbon copy" or BCC recipients. This works the same as To: either type the email addresses or click the button to display the Select Email Addresses dialog.

In Subject, type the subject for the email. A feature called auto-completion is available for the subject. This means that as you type, a drop-down list of previously entered values appears, from which you can select an item rather than typing the entire item again. This is similar to the way the address bar works in some Web browsers, for example. To select a previously used item, press the Down Arrow key until the desired item is highlighted and press Enter. You can also select it with the mouse. To remove a previously used item from the list, select it with the Down Arrow key or mouse and press the Delete key.

If you want to use an expression rather than fixed text for the subject, such as a user-defined function, add "{" and "}" (without the quotes) around field or function names in the text. Here's an example of an expression that displays "Sales for <spelled out month> <year>" (such as "Sales for December 2001") in the subject:

Sales for {cmonth(date())} {year(date())}

You must use FoxPro syntax for expressions.

Message is the message body for the email. Like Subject, you can use expressions in the message.

Once you have chosen the desired options, click the Send button. If you did not previously fill in the information in the Email page of the Options dialog, the email cannot be sent. In that case, you are asked if you want to fill that information in now. If so, that page of the Options dialog appears so you can do so and then click the Send button again to send the email.