Tag: export excel dashboards to other applications

An improved version of the example workbook exporting Excel Dashboards to other applications

The previous post provided an example Excel model with the option to export dashboards to other applications and file formats.

The workbook came with one serious limitation: the PDF and XPS export routine created a separate file for each dashboard, instead of one file with all dashboards.

In the article I stated, I wouldn’t see how to get around this without using an external PDF creator. It turns out that I simply couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

It was (again!) Leonid Koyfman, long-time reader and contributor, who pointed me into the right direction. The idea is as simple as it is efficient: create a temporary Excel workbook, copy all dashboards to it (each dashboard on a separate sheet), use the ExportAsFixedFormat method of the workbook object to export the entire workbook (i.e. all dashboards) to one PDF or XPS file and finally close the temporary workbook without saving changes. So simple, so obvious. I should have figured that out on my own. But I didn’t. Many thanks to Leonid for the idea.

Here is the improved version for free download:

Download Export Excel Dashboard to other Applications – Improved Version (zipped Microsoft Excel 2010 – 2013 workbook, 210K)

Stay tuned.

How to export Microsoft Excel Dashboards to PowerPoint, Word, PDF, XPS or Pictures

Earlier this week I received an email from Andrea, one of my few, but faithful readers. Andrea stumbled across a post from 2010 describing how to export Excel dashboards to PowerPoint and asked if I was planning a follow-up post about exporting from Excel to Microsoft Word.

Truth be told, not up to that point. I personally barely export from Excel at all, but if I do, I usually export to PowerPoint.

However, I found Andrea’s idea interesting for several reasons: exporting Excel dashboards to other applications and file formats may indeed be helpful, e.g. for creating reports or papers in Microsoft Word. Furthermore the original implementation exported three different dashboards, but the best use case for a bulk export to another application is an Excel dashboard displaying one selected period out of many or a dashboard with various filter options. In this case it can be a real time-saver if you have the option to export e.g. all weekly reports of a quarter or a defined set of filter combinations in one go. Last, but not least, it is actually no big deal to adjust the original code for other applications and file formats.

Today’s article provides an example workbook which allows to export the dashboards to PowerPoint, Word, PDF, XPS and some picture file formats (PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP). As always, the post includes a link to the Excel workbook for free download.

(more…)