Using PowerPoint PPTX Display Format

In this section:

With PowerPoint (PPTX), Microsoft introduced enhanced functionality in a new presentation file format. The PPTX format is supported in Microsoft Office versions 2007, 2010, and 2013. Earlier versions of PowerPoint can be updated to read the PPTX format using the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack available from the Microsoft download site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/default.aspx

Due to security policy changes implemented by Microsoft, the Excel and PowerPoint formats generated by WebFOCUS (EXL2K and PPT) will no longer be supported by Microsoft Office 2013. In addition, these formats are not supported by Microsoft Excel Viewer and PowerPoint Viewer in any Microsoft Office release. Use WebFOCUS to generate Excel (XLSX) and PowerPoint (PPTX) reports that can be viewed in these applications.

The WebFOCUS DOC format is a character-based file, not a Microsoft Word document. Acrobat PDF format is the standard for WebFOCUS display and print documents.

With WebFOCUS, you can retrieve data from any WebFOCUS supported data source and generate a PPTX presentation for data analysis and distribution.

The PPTX format generates fully styled reports in binary display format, which uses the same binary technology that is used for XLSX. When PPTX is specified as the output format, a PowerPoint presentation with a single slide that includes the report is created.

The WebFOCUS procedure generates a new presentation containing your defined report elements, such as headings and subtotals, as well as StyleSheet syntax, such as conditional styling and drill downs.

Additionally, you can add multiple graphs and images to a PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint output format can contain a variety of graphs positioned anywhere on a slide to create a visual layout.


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Using PowerPoint PPTX Templates

How to:

You can place report output on a specific slide in a PowerPoint template. This enables you to populate existing presentations with preset Slide Masters, styling, and other business content. PowerPoint design templates (POTX) and PowerPoint macro-enabled templates (POTM) are stored on the server and used to generate individual presentations that can be distributed automatically with ReportCaster.

The following table lists the available presentation template file types and the associated presentation file each will generate.

Template File Type

Output Presentation Generated

Template (.potx)

Presentation (.pptx)

Macro-Enabled Template (.potm)

Macro-Enabled Presentation (.pptm)

Presentation (.pptx)

Presentation (.pptx)

Macro-Enabled Presentation (.pptm)

Macro-Enabled Presentation (.pptm)



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Syntax: How to Create PowerPoint PPTX Report Output
ON TABLE {PCHOLD|HOLD|SAVE} [AS name] FORMAT PPTX 
[TEMPLATE {'template.potx'|'template.potm'} SLIDENUMBER n]

where:

name

Is the name of the PowerPoint output file.

template

Is the name of the PowerPoint template file. The template file must have at least one blank slide and must be saved as a .potx, .potm, .pptx, or .pptm extension on your WebFOCUS Reporting Server application directory.

Note: Since different extensions are supported for PowerPoint templates, it is recommended that you include the extension in the name of your template.

n

Is the number of the slide on which to place the report output. This number is optional if the template has only one slide.


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Building the .pptx Presentation File

How to:

Reference:

Microsoft changed the format and structure of the PowerPoint (PPTX) presentation. The new .pptx file is a binary compilation of a group of xml files. Generating this new file format using WebFOCUS is a two-step process that consists of generating the xml files containing the report output and zipping the xml documents into the binary .pptx format. The Reporting Server performs the xml generation process. The zipping process can be completed either by the client (WebFOCUS Servlet) or the server (JSCOM3):



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Syntax: How to Select the Method for Zipping the .pptx File

Designate the method and location where the zipping will occur by setting EXCELSERVURL to a URL (for the WebFOCUS Servlet) or to a blank (for JSCOM3). You can set this value for a specific procedure or for the entire environment:

The value you assign to EXCELSERVURL determines whether the WebFOCUS Servlet or JSCOM3 performs the zipping operation:

By default, each WebFOCUS Client contains the following URL definition that points to itself:

&URL_PROTOCOL://&servername:&server_port&IBIF_webapp


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Reference: Usage Notes for PPTX



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Reference: Format PPTX Limitations

Format PPTX does not support the following features:

Format PPTX does not support the following features, which are supported for PPT:


WebFOCUS