BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide

Choosing a format

You can select the format that the document or report instance will be saved in when it is generated. This format will be saved to the destination you have selected. For more information on destinations, see Selecting a destination. You can select from the following formats:

Web Intelligence document formats

For Web Intelligence documents, you can choose from the following formats:

• Web Intelligence
• Microsoft Excel
• Adobe Acrobat

Desktop Intelligence document formats

For Desktop Intelligence documents, you can choose from the following formats:

• Desktop Intelligence
• Microsoft Excel
• Adobe Acrobat

Crystal report formats

For Crystal report instances, you can choose from the following formats:

• Crystal Report
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Excel (Data Only)
• Microsoft Word (RTF)
• Adobe Acrobat
• Rich Text
• Editable Rich Text
• Plain Text
• Paginated Text
• Tab-Separated Text
• Tab-Separated Values
• Character-separated Values

For Excel, Paginated Text, Tab-separated Values, and Character-separated Values, you specify certain formatting properties for the report. For example, if you select Character-separated Values, you can enter characters for the separator and delimiter; you can also select the two check boxes: "Same number formats as in report" and "Same date formats as in report."

Note:    

• If you choose to print the report when it is scheduled (by checking the "Print in Crystal Reports format using the selected printer when scheduling" check box on the Print Setup page), the report instance is automatically sent to the printer in Crystal Reports format. This does not conflict with the format you select when scheduling the report.
• The difference between Excel and Excel (Data only) is that Excel attempts to preserve the look and feel of your original report, while Excel (Data only) saves only the data, with each cell representing a field.
• The Tab-separated Values format places a tab character between values; the Character-separated Values format places a specified character between values. Each of these two formats produce data lists. In contrast, the Tab-separated Text format attempts to preserve the formatting of the report.

To select a format for the report

1. In the Objects management area of the CMC, select a report object by clicking its link.
2. On the Schedule tab, click the Format link.

The Format page appears.

3. Select a format from the Format list.
4. Complete any fields that appear below the list and select (where appropriate) the check boxes that appear.
5. Click Update.