Anyone ever have luck exporting cleanly a standard Macola report to Excel (not a Crystal Report)? I understand how to print to file then trying to format within Excel by using delimiters or fixed width. However, this is a somewhat painful process and the results are typically pretty ugly. Is there a cleaner way of doing this? Any 3rd party products? Thanks...
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Macola Report to Excel
- Thread starter gc6294
- Start date
Exporting to Excel has always been a bit ugly. If you upgrade to crystal XI this process works a lot better. There is a good article on exporting to excel here:
To back up a bit, what is the purpose of exporting to Excel? Typically the answer is so you, or some other user, can further manipulate the data once it is there. If this is the case why not modify your crystal report to get the desired end result in crystal itself? This is why I am philosophically opposed to exporting to Excel.
If your crystal report is not giving you your desired end results, start a new thread on how we can do this. I guarantee you this is possible.
Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports
"If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word"
--Dave Barry
To back up a bit, what is the purpose of exporting to Excel? Typically the answer is so you, or some other user, can further manipulate the data once it is there. If this is the case why not modify your crystal report to get the desired end result in crystal itself? This is why I am philosophically opposed to exporting to Excel.
If your crystal report is not giving you your desired end results, start a new thread on how we can do this. I guarantee you this is possible.
Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports
"If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word"
--Dave Barry
I use Monarch Data extraction software for this. It's kind of expensive but it will allow you to build templates/models for each kind of std Macola report or any text or pdf report from other applications, so that you can reuse/automate the conversion process. It will allow the data to be used in Excel, Access or any other database.
I use an old version that only works with text reports. (OK for Macola) the new versions also work with pdf files.
I use an old version that only works with text reports. (OK for Macola) the new versions also work with pdf files.
crystalreporting
Instructor
I agree with Don's philosophy when it comes to Excel - if you're using it to further 'tweak' the results, then use Crystal as a single step and get the results in the format you need them.
Having said that, some people are simply more familiar with working with reults in Excel and it can be a great 'what if?' type of tool.
If Excel is a requirement, then I would not try to work with an exported Macola report OR an exported Crystal report. MSQuery (via data/get external data) allows you to build pretty good 'views' of your data including filters tied to cells in your spreadsheets (change a cell, get different results). Via MSQuery, your spreadsheet results are tied directly to the Macola data, just like Crystal.
Peter Shirley
Having said that, some people are simply more familiar with working with reults in Excel and it can be a great 'what if?' type of tool.
If Excel is a requirement, then I would not try to work with an exported Macola report OR an exported Crystal report. MSQuery (via data/get external data) allows you to build pretty good 'views' of your data including filters tied to cells in your spreadsheets (change a cell, get different results). Via MSQuery, your spreadsheet results are tied directly to the Macola data, just like Crystal.
Peter Shirley
- Status
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