Creating Reports with Smart Slices

Data source types: Oracle Essbase, Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase, Oracle Hyperion Financial Management

Smart Slices are stored centrally and are available to users from the Smart View Panel.

An entire report is associated with an Excel workbook, a Word document, or a PowerPoint presentation. One report is associated with an Excel worksheet, a Word page, or a PowerPoint slide. For PowerPoint presentations, Oracle recommends one report type per slide.

You can create reports from entire Smart Slices or from subsets of data in a Smart Slice. Reports can then be displayed on an Excel spreadsheet, Word document, or PowerPoint slide. You can display as many reports from as many data sources as space will permit on one sheet.

To create a report from a Smart Slice:

  1. From the Smart View ribbon, select Panel.
  2. From the Smart View Panel, select a Smart Slice.
  3. In the Action Panel, do one of the following.

    • To work with the Smart Slice as is, click Insert Smart Slice into report. The Smart Slice is displayed in Document Contents in the lower portion of the Smart View Panel.

    • To create a subset of the Smart Slice for local storage, click Modify Smart Slice and insert into report and use the Smart Slice Designer as described in Creating Smart Slices.

      Note:

      If you use Modify Smart Slice to create a Smart Slice, you must select the newly-created Smart Slice from the Smart View Panel tree list before performing ad hoc analysis.

  4. Click The Refresh Contents button to refresh the Document Contents tree.
  5. Select the Smart Slice in Document Contents, right-click and select Insert New Reporting Object/Control.
  6. From the Insert New Reporting Object/Control dialog box, select one of these report types to place on the grid:

    • Function Grid — a dynamic grid format

      Function grids can be used with Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. When you refresh a function grid, data cells are refreshed; members are not. To refresh both data and members, you must reinsert the function grid into the sheet. For this reason, function grids are most useful for reports in which members remain reasonably static. For reports whose members may change more often, tables and charts are better report types. Although you can have multiple reports on a worksheet, you can have only one function grid.

      You can use Excel formulas, for example SUM, with function grids. To retain such formulas as part of the function grid, you must leave one empty row between the grid and the cell containing the formula and include the empty row in the range of cells selected for the formula definition. This permits retention of the formula when refreshing the data results in a different number of rows in the grid.

      To format a function grid, use Excel formatting capabilities.

    • Office Table

      Office tables can be used with Word and PowerPoint. Office tables display results in native Microsoft Office table format. When you refresh an Office table, both members and data are refreshed.

      Office tables look and feel like part of the Word or PowerPoint document, but the members and data in the table cells are connected to the Oracle Smart View for Office provider. With Office tables, you can work with the Word or PowerPoint table formatting and styles that you are accustomed to. Insert a POV object into the report and you can change the POV of the Office table. Refresh the Office table after changing formatting or POV and the new POV is reflected in the results and custom formatting is retained.

      You cannot zoom in or out in an Office table object, and you cannot perform other ad hoc operations or use free form.

    • Table

      Tables can be used with PowerPoint and Excel. Table reports display results in a grid format that floats on the document and can be moved and re-sized. When you refresh a table, both members and data are refreshed. Tables are useful for displaying large grids in a smaller space; their scroll bars enable you to quickly access rows and columns.

      You can zoom in and out in a table report, but you cannot perform other ad hoc operations or use free form.

    • Chart

      Charts can be used with PowerPoint and Excel. In PowerPoint, contents of charts and tables are visible only in presentation mode. Chart reports display results in a chart format that floats on the document and can be moved and re-sized. When you refresh a chart, both members and data are refreshed.

  7. Optional: To move or re-size a table or chart, in Document Contents, click the down arrow next to the Refresh Contents button with down arrow, and from the menu, select Toggle Design Mode.

    You can now move objects within the sheet, slide, or page.

  8. To insert a report control, select the Smart Slice in Document Contents, right-click and select Insert New Reporting Object/Control.
  9. From the Insert New Reporting Object/Control dialog box, select one of these report control types:

    • POV — a report can contain only one POV

    • Slider — a report can contain multiple sliders. See Sliders.

    A report can contain a POV or sliders, but not both.

  10. Refresh.
  11. Optional: To create a separate report for any or all of the members of one dimension in the report and cascade these reports separately across the worksheets of the workbook, see Cascading Reports and Ad Hoc Grids.

    Note:

    In reports that contain a chart and a table, cascading may cause the chart and table to overlap the next time you open the workbook.