Improvements in Business Objects version 5.1.8

[DrSmyth]

Hi,

I probably should direct this question to Business Objects, but I don't seem to be getting a lot of sense out of them today (Maybe it's just me???).

We're currently using version 5.1.6 of business objects and are thinking of upgrading to 5.1.8. The main reason for this is that we want more interaction with Excel (only have a few BO liscenses and need to distribute reports to lot's of people). Is anybody using 5.1.8 and is it more compatible with Excel?

Any comments about this will be gratefully received

Smyth...

 

[skrandel]

5.1.8 is not going to be more Excel friendly that any other 5.1.x version. If you want alot of Excel integration, then V6 is the best answer.

What are you really looking for?

Steve Krandel
Westbay Solutions

http://www.westbaysolutions.com

 

[DrSmyth]

Hi Steve, The problem really is that i want to export to excel and keep all my formatting etc.

Now i've got some vba to export as a text file that opens in excel, which is fine for some situations, but doesn't look very good when it outputs, therefore i need to run some more code to format the spreadsheet.

I've also got vba that exports as an html file and sticks a report into excel, which is also useful in some situations as it formats the report as requested, but you are limited in the size of the file you can export as this takes a lot of memory to do (MY pc is only a 1gig with 500mb of ram)...

What i want is to be able to save as an excel file whilst keeping all of my original formatting and not being limited by size or lots of vba coding...

Do you think that version 6 will sort this, i was told by the Business Objects tech support people that version 6 was mainly upgraded to accomodate web interface..

 

[skrandel]

V6 does exactly what you want. It does it beautifully. Reports go right into Excel. Each tab on it's own. Formatting is maintained. Heck, even charts go over.

I really like the feature. And it works from WebI and the Client.

Steve Krandel
Westbay Solutions

http://www.westbaysolutions.com

 

[DrSmyth]

Cheers Steve, just found out we're entitled to a version 6 upgrade with our current service pack... Can hardly wait!!!!