Output Options

There are several possible output destinations for a report: printer, text file, spreadsheet, email, etc. You can also preview a report on the screen.

The options in the Output page of the Reports Explorer are:

• Output to: this option 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 the report to someone, select Email (the Print button appears as Send). You must have previously filled in the information in the Email page of the Options dialog so Stonefield Query knows how to send emails from your system. When you click Send, a dialog appears asking for the email address of the recipient (if you want to send the email to more than one person, separate the email addresses with commas), the subject of the email, and the body. Only the email address is required.

  

  To specify the recipients, either type their email addresses in the To text box or click the builder 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.

  

  Auto-completion is available for the Subject text box. 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 Internet Explorer, 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.

  When you click OK, an email is sent to the recipients with the report as a PDF attachment.

  The Preview button always sends the report to the screen, regardless of how the Output option is set.

• Display file after creation: if this option, which is only available when you're outputting to a file, 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.

• Print setup: this button, which is disabled if you are outputting to a file, allows you to select which printer the report is sent to. Clicking this button brings up the Printer dialog. You can also choose Print Setup from the File menu.

  
  
  

• File: this button, which is disabled if you are outputting to a printer, allows you to select which type of file to output, as well as the file name and location. Clicking this button brings up the Output to File dialog.

  
  
  You can 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) 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 97 or later spreadsheet with minimal formatting. The default extension for an Excel file is XLS. Though you can export a maximum of 65,535 records, versions of Excel earlier than Excel 97 display only the first 16,384 rows and cannot import files containing more than 32,767 rows. Also, note that memo fields are not output. If you have more than 65,535 records (16,384 for Excel 97) or want to output memo fields, use Delimited or Spreadsheet instead; Excel can open either of these file types. 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 - Full Format: this outputs the report to a Microsoft Word 2000 or later document with the same layout as the report. This takes longer than the Word - Table Format option, especially for reports with a lot of custom formatting or a lot of records. The default extension for a Word file is DOC.

  • Microsoft Word - Table Format: this outputs the fields that appear in the report to a Microsoft Word 97 or later document with a table layout. It is not formatted the same as the report, but this option is faster than the Word - Full Format choice. 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 - Full Format: this outputs the report to a Web page (HTML) file with the same layout as the report. This takes longer than the Web Page - Table Format option, especially for reports with a lot of custom formatting or a lot of records. The default extension for a Web page file is HTM.

  • Web Page - Table Format: this outputs the fields that appear in the report to a Web page (HTML) file with a table layout. It is not formatted the same as the report, but this option is faster than the Web Page - Full Format choice. 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 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.