Specify the output file type

Report types: Both standard and template-based reports

Use the Output Format settings on the Output Options tab to specify the output file type and additional options.

To specify the output options:

1. On the Output Options tab, select the output format from the File Type list.

   

• Adobe PDF: Creates a PDF report with headers and footers, as well as groups and calculations if they are defined for the report. This format is best for reports with a limited number of columns that the user wants to print or view in Adobe Reader.

• MS Excel: Creates an Excel spreadsheet without any headers, footers, groups, or calculations.This format is suitable for more advanced formula building.

• CSV: Creates a comma-separated output file without any headers, footers, groups, calculations, or formatting of any kind. This format is suitable for importing data into third-party applications.

2. If the report contains sensitive information, the Compress Output option is automatically selected and can’t be changed. If the report does not contain sensitive information, you can select this option to create a .zip file of the report output.

3. For a PDF report, select the Accessible option to create an output file that can be read by a screen reader. Selecting this option will increase the size of the output file due to the addition of accessibility tags. Do not select this option unless you (or other report recipients) use screen reader technology.

Tips

• A template-based PDF report with 7 or fewer columns will automatically use portrait orientation, while a report with more than 7 columns will automatically use landscape.

• If you choose to print a report formatted for MS Excel, you may need to adjust the column widths or the orientation to ensure that all columns will print on the width of one page.

• If you choose CSV format and open the file in MS Excel, any account numbers in the output may be displayed in scientific notation (for example, “1.23457E+15” instead of “1234567890123456”). To correct this issue, use the Text Import Wizard in Excel and format the column as text.

• For complex reports, selecting the Accessible option may cause some data to display in additional columns rather than in an embedded table. For less complex reports, selecting this option will not change the appearance of the report.

• For a template-based report, the output file is automatically optimized for the file type you select (PDF, Excel, or CSV). For a standard report, the output optimization is predefined and is reflected in the report name; unless the name specifies MS Excel, the report is optimized for PDF. If you make reports available to other roles, your users may notice that the output from the two report types looks slightly different even if the file type is the same. To determine which type of report they ran, users can filter the Report List by Report Type.