Report Generator for Microsoft Word - Hints and Tips

Chapter 8 Hints and Tips

You can run WDReportGen from the command line. The format is:
wordreport < wrf file name > [-c] [-d] [-u1 user1] [-p1 pwd1] ... [pa1 pa2 ...]
For example:

wordreport c:\wordreport\monthlysales.wrf -c 199605

WDReportGen can be scheduled with Windows Scheduled Tasks or other tools. The process of generating reports can be fully automated, periodically or on events.

WDReportGen comes with a sample database Sample.mdb and some sample reports. You can use them when learning the program. To use the sample reports, you must add a data source named "Report Sample" to specify the sample database.

To make a report template, you can use some sample data. It is very useful especially for formatting. After you have made the report template, you delete the sample data.

For a table report, you can format the value from data sources with a format expression. You should write a format expression into a data cell in the report template file first. WDReportGen will get the text of the cell as a format expression before it puts a value into a cell, and output the value using the format expression.

You can define the different formats and colors for positive values, negative values and zeros.

For a form report, you can format the value from data sources with the switch of a merge field or quote field like "\#" or "\@".

In the sample file "monthly_sales.doc", there is a macro called "CellRef". The macro can tell you the table number and the cell reference.

An irregular table does not have the same number of cells for each row or column. It does make it harder to process the document. In an irregular table, you have some difficulty to reference a cell, and an error may occur when you try to work with some rows or columns.

You can set the width of cells in the same column to be different, and keep the table have the same number of cells for each row. Select two or more cells in one row, merge them into one cell, and split the cell into two or more cells. You can drag the boundary and change the cell width.

To create a chart in the report template file, you can use some sample data. Using sample data, you can set the various chart options. After you have made the report template, you delete the sample data.

For MSGraph chart, on the datasheet, the leftmost column and the top row, which are commonly used for legend text or axis labels, are referred to as column 0 (zero) and row 0 (zero).

By default, Microsoft Word 2007 uses Microsoft Excel to create charts, but doesn't expose the chart as a normal Excel object. WDReportGen can not access the charts. You must insert an Excel chart object that WDReportGen can access.

You can use (formula) fields to perform calculations in a report template file.

WDReportGen is a converter too. Besides Microsoft Word document, you can generate a report in other file format such as HTML, XML, RTF, text, Works. You also can convert data from database to other file format.

You can protect the generated report so that it can not be modified. To protect the report, select the Protect Report check box in the Configuration dialog box.

You can edit a WRF file (.wrf) with a text editor such as Notepad.

If you associate WDReportGen with the file extension ".wrf", a WRF file with the extension ".wrf" will open in WDReportGen when you double-click the file. The information:
File Extension: .wrf
Action: open
Application: "C:\Program Files\LJZsoft\WordReport.exe" "%1"

For the report template file, report file and log file, it is possible to give a relative path. If it is a relative path, the base path is the path of the WRF file.

In the SQL statements, you can use parameters. To use parameters, you must define them first.

In the paths and names of the report file, template file and log file, you can use parameters. To use parameters, you must define them first.

The default log file is WordReport.log under the WDReportGen program directory. If you do not define the log file name, or can not create the log file defined, you can find log information in the WordReport.log under the WDReportGen program directory.

You should be careful to define a unique name for each parameter, because WDReportGen will replace all strings that are the same as the names of the parameters. It is a good choice a name begins with the "$" character such as "$ReportDate".

In the text editor window, you can use comments. A comment is the "/*" characters, followed by any sequence of characters (including new lines), followed by the "*/" characters. You cannot nest comments.

To add totals or subtotals, you can use the aggregate functions in SQL statement.

To group data in a report, you should use GROUP VARIABLE TABLE REPORT function.

In REPORT function, the order of groups should be in accordance with the order of ORDER BY clause in the SQL statement.

If you add a bookmark in a table, you can reference the table using the bookmark.

WDReportGen supports nested tables. You can reference a nested table by a table index like 2-1-2 or a bookmark.

In a HTML file, you can add a bookmark using the < a > tag. For example, The following example defines a bookmark named "salesreport".
< a name=salesreport > Sales Report < /a >

You can create reports with pictures unsing WDReportGen. You should store the path and name of the graphics file in the database, identify the image fields in the report function, and specify the inserted way, text wrapping style and size in the report template file.

If you insert pictures into the cells using table report function, you can adjust the position of the pictures by changing the cell margins.

To convert from pixels to points, it is depend on the screen resolution (DPI). If you have a 96 dpi screen (Windows PC), 4 pixels are equal to 3 points.

DocVariable function supports headers and footers. You can use it to put data into headers or footers.

It is very useful to create a temporary table. You can prepare data using INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/INSERT SELECT, and then make a report using REPORT function.

You can write a program to make a WRF file using C, perl or DOS shell, and then run WDReportGen to generate report. The two steps can be written into a batch file.

If you do not save a password in the WRF file, a login dialog box will appear when you run the WRF file in WDReportGen. You can input password interactively to log on to the data source.

It will take more time using COPYRANGE argument than using RANGE argument. Fixed table report is slower than non-group variable table report with RANGE argument, and faster than non-group variable table report with COPYRANGE argument. In general, group variable table report is slower than non-group variable table report. But if the ranges of all groups and details are same and you do not use COPYRANGE argument, it is faster.

WDReportGen will use clipboard. You can not copy and paste during report generating.

WDReportGen supports Microsoft Word 2007. You can use docx file as report file and template file. Please copy "wconv2007.cfg" to "wconv.cfg".