Excel Template Reports

Summary

The most powerful way to create reports in Vital Signs is to use Excel Template Files to create your reports.

This method has the most advantages:

• Multiple charts can be exported to the same document.
• Multiple worksheets can be created using sheet level banding.
• Calculations, in existing worksheets, can reference exported data using range names.
• Supports global, sheet level and object level selections.
• Supports file, sheet and object level banding.
• Excel 2007 or later must be installed on the Vital Signs windows server

Setting Up an Excel Template Report in DocumentDistribution

Add an entry to the DocumentDistribution file with the following fields:

DocumentName	Name of the Vital Signs Application (qvw file).
ExportType	Excel
Definition	Name of an Excel Template File (*).
OutputFileName	Name of the Excel file to be created.
FileExistsAction	Purge
Selection	Optional: Name of the selection.
Banding	Optional: Name of the Banding Field.
PrinterName	This field is ignored for Excel Template reports.
EmailList	Optional: List of email recipients, separated by a semi-colon.
FileCreatePath	Default path to create the file, if no path specified in the filename.
EmailLinkPath	The path to include in an email instead of attaching the actual file.

Where is the file created?

There are several ways to specify a path for the Excel file. The following possibilities are checked until a path can be determined:

• If the OutputFileName includes a path, the file is created in that location.
• Use the FileCreatePath, is one is specified, on the same row as the report definition.
• Use the FileCreatePath, if one is specified, on the PDFConfig page.
• If no path is specified, use the same directory as the Vital Signs application file (usually vitalsigns/CUNAME)

Creating an Excel Template Report

An Excel template report is created by designing a template file using Excel. When the report is generated, the template file is read and a final Excel file is produced based on the definitions in the template file. The layout of the template file allows for very sophisticated Excel files to be created.