Excel Graphic

Microsoft Excel graphics can be added to your PlanetPress Design documents just like any other PlanetPress Design business graphic. Data selections are used to populate the graphics at runtime, so each document displays context-specific information, such as stock prices or monthly expenses. Like other images, Excel business graphics can be moved or resized. At design time, only a placeholder is displayed on the page (the actual graphics are generated at runtime).

This feature is only available for Optimized Postscript printing and for Windows Printing. Microsoft Excel 2000 or better must be installed on the server running the PlanetPress Design documents (although only the Excel template is actually required to design the PlanetPress Design document).

For each Excel business graphic you want to use in PlanetPress Design, you must create an Excel template file (see the example below for more details). At runtime, PlanetPress Design uses this file to generate the graphic and to display it on the document.

To add an Excel business graphic

• Create an Excel workbook:
  • The first sheet in your workbook must include the sample data on which your graph will be based. The data displayed in the graph must appear in the first one hundred cells of the same column. Some of the cells may remain empty, but no data should appear past cell number 100. These 100 cells must not have any special formatting (use the standard formatting). You may add a table on the same sheet for the purpose of organizing your data , but any data included in that table should be referenced to your sample data cells.
  • The graph itself must be placed on a new sheet. Any variable information appearing in the graph must be referenced to the sample data cells from the other sheet, or to cells from the table, but only if those cells are referenced to the sample data cells. If you use the Chart Wizard to create your Excel business graph, bear in mind that at the end of the procedure, you should select the As new sheet option so as not to place the graph on the same sheet as the sample data..
  • Save the template file in the following location: Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Suite N\PlanetPress Design\ (where N is the PlanetPress Suite version number).
• Add an Excel Business graph object on your PlanetPress Design document:
  • Place an Excel business graph object on your document page.
  • In the Graphic page of the Excel Business Graphics properties dialog box, select any of your Excel graph template files and set its properties.
  • In the Data page of the Excel Business Graphics properties dialog box, select the data that will be placed in the source data cells of your Excel graph template file.
  • Bear in mind that when you design a document, only a placeholder is displayed. The actual graphs are only appear when documents are generated.

Excel Business Graphics properties are as follows:

Graphic page

• Excel template: Select the template you want to use for your graphic. Click the Refresh button to redisplay all the currently available templates.
• On error: Select the desired behavior if an Excel graph cannot be generated.
• Excel sheet column: Enter the letter that corresponds to the Excel data column in which the variable data is to be entered at runtime.

Data page

• Excel data graph data column: Select the data that should be entered in the cells of the Excel data sheet at runtime.
• Excel sheet column: Enter the letter that corresponds to the Excel data column in which the variable data is to be entered at runtime.
• Other options are similar to the Data Selection Object properties.