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 Introducing PTWin32 |
PTWin32’s Ad
Hoc Reporter is an excellent choice for the composition of printed report
formats. It is also a query engine that is a great alternative for supplying
quick answers to complicated questions. Usually these answers
involve a subset of values or calculated aggregates laid out in the default
table format. This table data can easily be exported from the Ad Hoc Reporter to
any number of other software programs. For this example
let’s say you want a list of contractors who have local licenses that expire
in June. And you want to incorporate that list into a Microsoft
Word document you are preparing. On the Define
Search tab of the Ad Hoc Reporter
you place the Contract table and drag
the fields Company, Local License, and Local
License Expiration onto the report layout. Then double-click on Local
License Expiration and add a filter that selects records between June 1st
and June 30th of the year in question. Switch to the Preview
Report tab and make sure the table contains the records and fields you want.
When you are happy with the data pull down File
and select Export. The idea here is to
save the results of the query as a file that you can open and format with
Microsoft Word, so select ASCII Delimited
File (*.TXT). This will export the data with commas between the fields and
quotes around the values. Next select a
location on your hard drive, name the file, and press the OK
button. Now you have a text file on your hard drive with the contents of your
report. Execute Word,
pull down File and select Open.
Point to the text file and open it. Next select all of
the text in the document and pull down Table. There you will find a Convert
command. From the Convert menu select Text
to Table. At the bottom of the Convert
Text to Table dialog there is a section labeled, Separate
text at. Make sure the radio-button for Commas
is selected and press OK. Now you have your
data separated into the proper cells but you need to get rid of the quotation
marks. Select Replace from the Edit
menu. Put a quote (“) in the Find What field. Leave the Replace
With field blank and press Replace All. Now that your
quotation marks are gone you can execute other reformatting chores like font
face and size and column widths, etc. When you are
satisfied with the table you can Copy
it from this document and Paste it
into any other document you are preparing.
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