Formatted Reports

Formatted Reports allow the user to create bulk documents - for example, leaving certificates or student timetables. This saves time instead of creating them individually.

There are three components of Formatted Reports:

• Report - this is your “list” of students that you wish to create the documents for, together with the data for each of the students that should appear on the document.

• Document/Slides - you can choose to use either a Google Doc or Slide for your document. We recommend using Slides if there are any visual/image components, or if your document requires more precise formatting.

• Document Template - this is the record that links the report and document together and controls which folder it should appear in.

Creating the Report

• We highly recommend creating a dedicated report for your Formatted Report, using a prefix “FR” and saved in a separate “Formatted Reports” report folder. This is to ensure that other users are aware that any changes made to this report may affect the resulting document. If you use a report that is in regular use by other colleagues, there is a high chance changes could be made to the filters and fields, which may in turn impact on the formatted report.

• Create a report as usual, basing on the appropriate report type, applying filter criteria and adding the required fields as necessary.

• Ensure you apply at least one Grouping to the report - the system creates one document per group. For example, the Grouping could be the Student ID, meaning one document would be created per student.

Creating the Document

• Consider whether to use Google Docs or Slides for your document. Docs gives better control over paragraph and margin formatting for letter type documents, where Slides gives better control over placement of images (including layering of images) and more precise positioning of document components.

• Create your document as required.

• When entering mergefields, these should reference the headers in your report exactly, using the format {!Example Field}. For example:

  • Report column header: Student Name

  • Mergefield: {!Student Name} (note spaces are OK here - the mergefield just needs to match the column header exactly.

• Please note it is not possible to use the Google Doc headers and footers in Formatted Reports. Consider adding the header and/or footer images in the main body of the document, or use Google Slides instead.

Creating the Document Template

• As always, it is much easier to clone an existing record rather than creating a new record from scratch.

• Ensure you are using the correct record type for the type of document you wish to create:

  • For Google Docs, use “Google Reports Tabular”

  • For Google Slides, use “Google Reports Slides”

• The key fields are explained as per the below:

Open

• To find the Report ID, go to the report you are using, then select the ID from the URL and copy into the field in the Document Template record:

Open

• Copy the URL of the Google Document or Slide to the Template Edit URL field.

• Ensure you Save the Document Template record, and once saved, press the Update Template button at the bottom of the record.

Running the Formatted Report

• Navigate to the Formatted Reports tab. This is not added by default, so you may wish to add this tab to your Navigation Bar.

• Select the folder containing the formatted report you wish to run.

• There are three action buttons:

  • Report - this takes you through to the report if you wish to check the data before you run the document. Please note that the when the document is created, the report is run as part of the process, so the most up-to-date data is pulled through to the document.

  • Create - Press this button to create the document. Depending on your report settings, this may prompt a dialogue box, but typically no adjustments are required - just press Create again.

  • View - this button appears when the document has been successfully generated, and will take you through to the document which you can print or download as required.

Notes

• You may receive an error message if your report returns no results. Check your report if you are expecting some results, and try again.

• The resulting document is not “saved” anywhere in the system, nor are the documents linked back to the Student Accounts or Enrolments. When the Formatted Report is run again, the View link will then take you through to the new document and it is not possible to view the previous document.