MS Office 101

Manage Your Reports

Do you have a single MS Excel file from which you print many different reports? Are they the same set of reports each time? (You know—these pages for person A, then other pages for person B—each time?)

What do you do?

Do you find yourself constantly resetting the print range so that each person gets exactly what they need—no more, no less?

Or, do you print the whole thing then spend time figuring out the different reports while standing at the copier?

A bit tiring?

Yeah, I think so too.

Want a better way to organize the different reports?

Maybe one that doesn't require you to set and reset printing over and over again?

Sounds good doesn't it?

Are you ready for a solution where the settings for each person's individual report are stored so you don't have to keep resetting them each time?

Well, as you may have already guessed we've got one.

Let your manager keep track of it all—your Report Manager to be specific.

MS Excel has a wonderful little add-in called Report Manager and keeping track of the different views and scenarios for each individual is exactly its purpose.

A specific definition—straight from the online help—is that Report Manager, "combines a sequence of sheets, views, and scenarios to create a report that you can print".

Want to know more?

Then stay with me because the report manager "how to" is coming up next!

Office Tip of the Day

Using Excel's Report Manager

So, you've decided that the Report Manager might be just the thing you need and, fortunately, that's what I'm here to discuss today—so let's get right to it.

The first thing you need to do is to see if the report manager add-in was installed.

Go to the View menu and check out the bottom of the menu.

Do you see the Report Manager listed?

Yes—then you're set to go.

No—then you need to follow these steps to get the add-in activated.

Go to the Tools menu, Add-Ins choice.

Scroll through the list and select Report Manager from the list.

Click OK.

When you return to the View menu this time you should find the Report Manager listed.

Now everyone's ready to choose Report Manager from the View menu.

The Report Manager window should open giving you a list of already created reports for that workbook along with the options to add, delete, edit and print reports. (Of course the list is currently empty now—it's your first visit here so none have been created.)

Click the Add button.

The Add Report window will open—this is where all the time-saving stuff come in.

In this window you can set what needs to be printed for each report.

Let's get started.

At the top you need to name the report. Make it something self-explanatory. It's the only name that will appear in the Report Manager list—it needs to make sense by name.

In the center, under "Section to Add" you need to tell Excel what will be printed in the report.

The first thing is to choose what sheet is to be printed from the drop-down list.

If you only set a sheet name then the entire sheet will be printed.

If you have a specific section of a worksheet to print then you'll need to get more specific with Excel.

Below the sheet name you can choose a specific View or Scenario to print instead of the whole worksheet.

(Yep, that means you'll have to define the view or scenario before you try this in order to have them appear on the drop-down list.)

When you've made your selections click the Add button.

You'll notice at the bottom of the window, in the "Sections in this Report" box the item was added.

If you have more to print then start over in the middle to add another section to print.

When you have everything added you're ready to decide the order of printing.

To the right of the bottom section you'll notice the buttons for Move Up, Move Down and Delete.

Select a section and make a choice.

You'll instantly see the sections change as you've directed.

At the very bottom of the window you need to check the box if you would like the pages numbered consecutively.

When everything's exactly as you need it than click the OK button at the very top of the window.

You'll be returned to the Report Manager window where you'll now find your new report listed.

In the future, returning to the Report Manager (via the View menu) is the way to print, edit, and delete these reports.

If you need to edit a report select it and click the Edit button.

Deleting a report works the same way—select it and click the Delete button.

If you want to print a report then choose it and click Print. You'll be given a small window where you can set the number of copies to print before sending the information to the printer.

All in all - it's a pretty good way to put an end to your nightmares whenever you have to distribute different reports to what feels like a million different people!

~ April