Can I Customize a Report?

Anybody can edit or create new report templates using MS Excel. To display them in the Stardraw Reports menu you simply save the new template as a .XLT file in the templates directory (you can find this in Stardraw by selecting Options | Library Directories). Having saved your new or edited template, the next time you start Stardraw the report will be listed in the menu.

Report templates use named ranges which identify the cells into which attribute values are inserted. Named ranges are specified using a prefix and a suffix where the prefix determines how the attribute value is handled and the suffix gives the attribute name to be used. Note that Named Ranges in Excel cannot use spaces so any spaces in an attribute name must be replaced by an underscore (_) in the Named Range. For attribute values to be inserted each named range must be a single cell.

The named ranges must be placed in a single row and "Detail_" and "Summary_" ranges should never be mixed in a template. For an example of their use see an existing .XLT file; you can check the location of Templates and Reports in Stardraw by selecting Options | Library Directories.

One other named range must be present in the template. The range "Detail_Data" (or "Summary_Data" for summary reports) should include all cells into which attribute information is inserted. Usually this data range would be the whole row which contains individual named cells, plus the next row.  The image below shows how named ranges might be used.

When you produce a Report from one of these templates, Stardraw reads a symbol's attributes then inserts their value (or the sum of their values where the prefix is "Summary_" and multiple symbols have otherwise identical attribute values) into the Excel spreadsheet according to the layout of the named ranges. A row is then inserted and the process repeated for the next symbol, and so on.

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