Hi
Is there a way to export a Business Objects report to an existing Excel spreadsheet in such a way that all the data falls into the correct cells in the spreadsheet without compromising its format?
BOnut (BOB member since 2005-03-02)
With BusObj v5, the answer is probably no. Some users save the BusObj report as HTML, then open the HTML with Excel. That does manage to preserve some formatting.
BusObj v6 introduced a native “save as Excel” functionality that works decently well. The 6.5.1 release does the best at preserving formats, but it is far from perfect. Generally speaking, the more straightforward the report the better job of “preserving” it will do. Our standardized reports tend to be highly formatted (not ad hoc at all), and even v6.5.1 scrambles them beyond recognition when saving as Excel.
Sorry for the long winded answer. Short version … “without compromise” will be tough to do, but v6 does pretty well for most reports.
Dwayne Hoffpauir 
(BOB member since 2002-09-19)
Thank you for the information. It has been my experience that in 80% of the cases, users are satisfied with the BO reports. But there are instances when users have put a lot of effort into creating excel spreadsheets (before the warehouse), perhaps with some macros, and wish to retain this report, however, have it populated through Business Objects. Looks like it is going to be a while.
Thanks
BOnut (BOB member since 2005-03-02)
What about businessquery?
Wouldn’t BQ an idea?
- Wobi
Wolfgang Bidner 
(BOB member since 2002-08-30)
Now that is a TOTALLY different thing from your first question. So, in the current models, where are they getting data? I assume from some other query source that brings back data in a row / column fashion? Then formulas or VBA code that puts the data in the correct place? You can certainly replicate that behind the scenes with BusObj, if you are open to / licensed for a SDK solution. I can give you a sketch if you are interested.
Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)
Assume that BO report has data as follows:
Dontation Catagory Donation Name Month Amt
… … … …
… … … …
and so on.
The existing spreadsheet is a bit more “colorful” in the sense, it has:
Donation Category Donatiion Name Budget Jan Feb Mar Total Apr May June total … Oct Nov Dec Total Grand Total
When you clik on the view data cudbe and try to export to excel, it is basically a “raw” export with columns mentioned . But this data must be positioned as per the spreadsheet above. How can this be achieved (assume I am not using Business Query)
Thanks
BOnut (BOB member since 2005-03-02)
If you don’t want a “raw” export, you need to copy and paste from the table displayed, rather than using the Excel export.
Take a look at this entry from our FAQ: Reporter on Saving/Exporting to Excel.
(Note that FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions, are at the top of each forum. If anyone out there recognizes an FAQ that hasn’t been added, feel free to consolidate the information, and a Moderator can add it to the appropriate FAQ.)
Anita Craig (BOB member since 2002-06-17)