How To Export Reports

This topic gives you steps to export a report from your database. You may want to export a report for several reasons:

* If you have an issue with a report, Collect! Tech Support can usually resolve it most quickly when you send us the report.

* We can customize an existing report for you.

* You may want to share a report with another Collect! user.

To get the report out of Collect!, we export it and give the report a name. (e.g. myreport) Collect! saves it as an ASCII text file and gives it a *.rpt extension.

Make sure you know exactly which report you want to export. Also, have a name ready to give to your exported report file and know where on your computer you want to save it. Saving to your Desktop is convenient.

Let's proceed, now, with the steps below to export your report from Collect!.

1. Sign into Collect! as you would normally and select Print from the top menu bar.


Print Menu

2. Then select Customize Printing, Export Report Template. This displays the Report Definition list where you see all the reports and letters in your working database.


Report Definition form

3. Use the up/down arrow keys on your keyboard to highlight the report you want to export. Press Enter or select the OK button at the bottom of the list. The Export Collect! Report dialog pops up.

If you are needing to export multiple reports in a single output file, use the up/down arrow keys on your keyboard to reach the first target report and press your Space bar to Tag the report name. This will cause the white background of the report name in the list to become colored to indicate that a tagged item has been selected. You will notice that the letter "T" in the status bar at the bottom of the screen has turned blue, indicating that a tagged list has been initiated.

Continue use your up/down arrow keys and space bar until you have tagged all the reports you want to export out to file. Press Enter or click OK to proceed.


Export Collect! Report Dialog

4. The next window that pops up is the same type you see when saving any file in a Windows application: you are prompted to provide a path and file name of what you wish to save. Navigate to where you wish to save the file on your PC or Network, i.e. Desktop or folder path, and give the file a name. It is important to use the file extension ".rpt" in the name of the exported report name. Example: "letterseries1.rpt". It is also important to ensure you have network write privileges to save on the location you are selecting. Windows 8 users may find that their default network settings do not allow users to save to their local C: drives. See your inhouse Systems Administrator for info or assistance on where you should save a file in your system if you receive any Windows error message rejecting the path to which you were attempting to save into.


Report To Save

5. Select Save to export the report.

6. Now you will be prompted to export Printer Control Codes with your report. Please choose Yes.


Prompt to Export Printer Control Codes

Your report will be exported immediately and a message will show the name of the report you just exported and the location where you saved it.


Report Export Success

Please make note of the location so that you can find the exported report. It is a good idea to write down the filename so that you can locate the report easily.

7. Select OK to close the message window.

If you are going to send this report to Collect! Tech Support, you can attach it to an email. Please refer to your email program's help documentation on attaching a file to an email.

@include files

If the report you are exporting uses an @include file, please also attach this to the email along with the *.rpt file that you send to Collect! Technical Services. @include files may be found in the Collect! application's STYLES folder, (e.g. Collect\styles)

Locating the exported report

If you do not know where on your computer the exported report was saved, you may do a search for files and folders using the Windows Search feature to locate your report file. You have to know the exact name of the file or do a search for all *.rpt files.

Please refer to your Windows Help for details. Type in "searching for files and folders" as the keywords for your Help topic and you should see results that help you use the Search feature.

When your report shows up in the search results, select it and Right click on it with your mouse. This will display a sub-menu. Select COPY from the sub-menu.

Now, move your mouse to a spot on your Desktop. Right click again and select PASTE.

A copy of the report file is now on your Desktop. This is a convenient location to use to easily find the *.rpt file if you want to attach it to an email.

Viewing a report outside of Collect!

If you need to open an *.rpt file, please open with a text editor that will not change the format. If you open with a word processor, MAKE SURE you save it as a text file and not in the word processor's default format as this will make the file unusable by Collect!.

Exporting Internal Or RTF Reports

Collect! cannot export either internal or RTF reports as the report body for these types are not stored in the database. Internal reports are part of the Collect! source code and cannot be edited. RTF files are located in the Collect! STYLES folder.

Please be aware that exported reports DO retain any additional settings contained in the report definition's Report Options.

You can also copy reports from one database to another in Collect!. Please refer to Help topic, How To Copy Records for details.