Hi All,
We might be getting Business Objects Query (Trial version first).
So I was wondering if any one can point me in the right direction.
Where can I find a HTML/PDF manual or some other document, so that I can start looking at it ?
Also what all BO Query can do ?? Our requirement is we would like to have BO like reports in Excel. Currently we run the reports and then save them as RTF/HTML and then open them with Execl and save them as Excel.
I am hoping we with BO Query, we would be able to directly run the reports in Excel.
Another question I would like to ask, with BO Query, does it preserve all the formulae, so if somebody wants to take the excel spreadsheet and start playing with it, he can do so ??
Hi kumar, thats a mighty lot of questions! Ask the people who are providing you with the trial version to send you the Getting Started PDF document…it tells you a lot. Are you talking about BusinessObjects Reporter here or about BusinessQuery - I think BusinessQuery, in which case:
a) there should be a similar PDF document to the one I mention above (which is for Reporter)
b)Yes you can run your queries from Excel - thats the way it works!
We use Business Query For Excel extensively. My users create their own ad-hoc queries (interesting, sometimes!) and they are very happy with it. They want to be able to have the data in Excel without having to mess with downloading it from somewhere else. I don’t actually have to write and maintain the reports (which is good or bad depending on your users!).
The main difference is you can’t link data providers in BQ. My users do two separate queries, inserted into the same Excel file, and any linking is done using the Excel Vlookup formula. It’s a pain but it’s easy for the users to understand. Many of my users have written extensive Excel macros to do what can be done fairly easily in Business Objects Reporter.
You don’t really run the reports in BQ – you run individual queries/data providers. Any formatting after the fact has to take place using Excel features. For example, you can’t “set as master” an object in BQ.
You also have to consider that Excel only has 65,000+ rows – at least my version is limited to that. We don’t run into that limit very often but your shop may be different.
Yes Nick, I was looking for Business Objects Query PDF.
I got a PDF from the our Admin guys. so I will read it what it says.
Karen, we already have reports developed in Excel. So once we have the BO Query installed, then can we save a report in Excel format directly.
That’s really what we need BO query for. In the beginning, we are not looking at running queries in Excel but may think about that later.
If you can’t link DP then it makes BO Query useless for us in that regard, as most of out queries have two DP’s with data combined into same report. So that will make life a bit difficult.
Also, assuming we can save a BO report directly into Excel, does it preserve the formula ??
BQ allows you to build queries (that is, individual data providers) within Excel. You can’t build “Reporter”-like reports within BQ.
In Reporter, you can open up BusinessQuery queries and run them. But you can’t open up “reporter” documents using BusinessQuery for Excel and run them directly in Excel.
Perhaps what you have is not BusinessQuery for Excel? Is there some other BusObj product that interfaces directly with Excel?
No, you cannot save existing BusObj Reports in Excel format without losing any formulas associated with them. Not by using BusinessQuery for Excel.
You can go into BusObj Reporter and do a “Save as” to create BusinessQuery files from your individual data providers. But that doesn’t save the report, it just saves the data providers. Your formulas and linking are lost.
Again, you may be getting something completely different from BusinessQuery for Excel. But I don’t know of any other BusObj software that interfaces directly with Excel. Of course, I don’t know the capital of Iowa either but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist!
(BOB member since 2002-08-15)
(BOB member since 2002-07-17)
(BOB member since 2002-07-17)