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You may select PowerPoint as an output format in Developer Studio which enables you to:
Selecting PowerPoint as the output format creates a PowerPoint document with a single slide that includes the report.
The PowerPoint output format can contain a variety of graphs positioned anywhere on a slide to create a visual layout.
A PowerPoint report can be placed inside of an existing PowerPoint presentation. This enables you to populate existing presentations with preset Slide Masters, styling, and other business content. PowerPoint templates are stored on the server with a .MHT extension and can be distributed automatically with ReportCaster.
Choosing the PowerPoint output format enables quick editing and customization of your report in Microsoft PowerPoint.
The Report Options dialog box opens at the Output tab.
Note: You may also select PowerPoint from the Output Format toolbar.
A PowerPoint output slide, that includes the report, is created, as shown in the following image.
You can add images, such as logos or backgrounds, to your PowerPoint report. To successfully import an image into a PowerPoint report, the image must be either a GIF or JPEG file type. Other file types are not supported in the PowerPoint output format. Images must be located on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server application directory.
Note: The PowerPoint output format cannot generate a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that references an image.
The Report Options dialog box opens at the Images tab.
or
Click Browse to select the image file from the Open dialog box.
Tip: You can easily add images to your PowerPoint output by placing the image in the Slide Master of a PowerPoint template. The template file can be utilized by all users and eliminates the need to add image files to the Reporting Server. For more information about PowerPoint templates, see How to Use a PowerPoint Template in Report Painter.
Adding a graph to PowerPoint works in the same manner as adding a static image file. The graph is rendered as a static image, held or saved on the Reporting Server, and then embedded into a report. There is no limit to the number of graphs you can add to a single PowerPoint report and the graphs can be positioned anywhere in the output.
The Select a location and format dialog box opens.
Note: To successfully import a graph into a report, you must select either GIF or JPEG as your graph output format. All other graph output formats are not supported in PowerPoint.
The Report Options dialog box opens at the Images tab.
or
Click Browse to select the graph HOLD file from the Open dialog box.
Note: When a graph HOLD file is saved in a procedure, Report Painter detects this HOLD file and automatically lists it in the Images tab (when the Graph Image Source option is selected). The graph must precede the report.
The graph is represented with a graphical image and can now be sized and positioned.
The following image shows the document in PowerPoint output format.
Tip: To create a presentation that contains only graphs, make the report invisible. To do this, create a very simple request with an invisible BY field and a read/record limit of one.
Reports and graphs can be embedded into an existing PowerPoint template. The output is placed on a specified slide which can be anywhere in the presentation.
Note: A PowerPoint template must contain at least one slide for the report to populate, but can have as many additional slides as you want.
Note: This slide will be completely replaced when you execute the report, so any objects added to this slide will be lost when the report is executed.
Tip: Objects added to the PowerPoint Slide Master will remain intact.
The following image is an example of the template in PowerPoint showing the slide master.
Tip: Since the Reporting Server cannot differentiate between Excel and PowerPoint template files (.MHT), it is important to apply a naming convention to your template files. This will help you organize and distinguish the different Excel and PowerPoint template files when developing your reports. For example, Excel_template.MHT or PPT_template.MHT.
The Report Options dialog box opens at the Output tab.
The drop-down list populates with the available PowerPoint templates to choose from.
Note: In order for your PowerPoint template to appear in the drop-down list, it must be saved in your WebFOCUS Reporting Server application directory. This list displays all .MHT files in the server path.
The slide number is the number of the slide in the document. For example, if you have five slides in your document and you designated the second slide for the WebFOCUS report, then you would enter 2, as shown in the following image.
The report and graph is embedded in the selected PowerPoint template on the selected slide, as shown in the following image.
Tip: PowerPoint templates can be utilized by multiple users and automatically distributed with ReportCaster. This ensures that all reports are consistent and show the standard styling, logo, and so on, for your organization.
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When browsing or viewing PowerPoint files from the Internet Explorer web browser, a PowerPoint presentation will normally open within the web browser. However, you can change this by customizing the PPT file type properties in Windows. If you uncheck the Browse in same window property, PowerPoint will open in a new window separately from the browser. If you uncheck this option and a PowerPoint report is executed by WebFOCUS, the report opens in slide show mode and cannot be edited.
The following image is an example of a PowerPoint output in slide show mode.
To view and edit your PowerPoint output, change your settings so that PowerPoint documents open in the same window.
The Edit File Type dialog box opens.
The PowerPoint output appears in the same window.
PowerPoint opens in a web browser with full editing capabilities, as shown in the following image.
Redirection is turned off by default for the PowerPoint format. This can keep the output from updating when trying to re-execute a PowerPoint report and targeting the same output frame.
For example, if using the autoprompt facility with PowerPoint output, the target frame may not update when changing parameter values and running the report. For more information about Changing Redirection Settings, see the WebFOCUS Security and Administration manual.
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