Design Considerations
When designing in either environment, the following should be considered.
Renaming Worksheets
If a worksheet is referenced by data connection, renaming the worksheet invalidates the connections. In such cases, use the Export function provided in Data Connection, replace the old worksheet name with the new one and then use Import to update the configuration.
Printing Reports and Forms
When a report or form is printed, the page layout defined in the studio is used for the worksheet. These settings are accessible under the Page Layout tab in Excel and File, Print, Page Setup on the in the XLReporter Template Studio.
These page settings extend to the report when it is published as a PDF file.
Print Area
By default, when a worksheet is printed, every populated cell appears on the printout. The Studio provides an option to set the print area of a worksheet so that only a specific range of cells appears on the printout. This can be defined for each worksheet by highlighting the cells to print and selecting Page Layout, Print Area in Excel and File, Print, Page Setup in the XLReporter Template Studio.
Security
Reports viewed using the Report Viewer, both locally and with a Team Client, are read-only. If manual edits are to be permitted, then the cells in the template need to be unlocked. To unlock a cell in Excel, right-click and select Format Cells. In the Protection tab, uncheck Locked. To unlock a cell in the XLReporter Template Studio, select the cell(s) and click the Format dropdown list on the Design tab and choose Unlock Cells.
This security is applied to on-demand reports that are generated using the On-Demand Reports application.
The same security is extended to Form Templates so any cells that user must enter data into should be unlocked.
In addition, any cell containing a formula is automatically protected against editing regardless of whether any security is applied to the report.