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Lesson 4: Sharing your data

It will probably take you about 30 minutes to complete this lesson.

In previous lessons, you used Discoverer to retrieve and analyze sales data. Once you have created reports, you typically want to share the reports with other Discoverer users or other organizations.

In this lesson you will learn how to use Discoverer to print and export worksheets, and share worksheets with other Discoverer users.

This lesson consists of the following exercises:

• "Exercise 1: Printing a worksheet"

• "Exercise 2: Exporting data to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format"

• "Exercise 3: Sharing workbooks"

• "Lesson summary"

• "Tutorial summary"

Exercise 1: Printing a worksheet

In this exercise you will learn how to print worksheet data. Discoverer provides the Print Wizard to take you step-by-step through the printing process. You will print a worksheet in the Video Tutorial Workbook to show data for the year 2000.

To print a worksheet:

1. Connect to the Video Store Tutorial database and open the Video Tutorial Workbook.

   Hint: See Lesson 1: "Exercise 1: Starting Discoverer Plus" and "Exercise 2: Opening the tutorial workbook".

2. Display the Tabular Layout worksheet.

   Figure 5-1 Tabular Layout worksheet in Video Tutorial Workbook workbook

   
   
   Text description of the illustration a1.gif

   In this example, you only want to print data for the year 2000.

   Hint: If you wanted to print data for all years available, you would select 'All' from the Year drop down list in the Page Items area, or pivot the Year item to the body of the worksheet so that data for all years was displayed on the worksheet.

3. Choose 2000 from the Year drop down list in the Page Items area.

4. Choose File | Print to display the Print Wizard: Select Objects dialog.

   Figure 5-2 Print Wizard: Select Objects dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share1.gif

   The Print Wizard: Select Objects dialog enables you to select which worksheets to print. In this case, you want to print the current worksheet only.

5. Select the Current worksheet radio button.

   Notice that the Table/Crosstab only radio button is selected by default. This is because the tutorial workbook does not contain graphs.

6. Click Next to display the Print Wizard: Supervise dialog.

   Figure 5-3 Print Wizard: Supervise dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share2.gif

   The Print Wizard: Supervise dialog enables you to choose whether to monitor the printing process.

   To make sure that the most current data is printed, Discoverer refreshes the worksheet before printing it to make sure that the worksheet contains up-to-date data. Sometimes issues arise during the printing process (e.g. the query used to generate the report might exceed the maximum recommended time). You can specify whether you want to resolve such issues, or whether you want Discoverer to ignore them.

7. Select the Supervised radio button.

8. Click Finish to send the report to the default printer.

9. If the Windows print dialog is displayed, select the printer that you want to use from the Printer Name drop down list, then click OK.

   Figure 5-4 Windows Print dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration prn_nta.gif

   In this exercise you have learned how to print worksheets in Discoverer. Now you are ready to learn how to export Discoverer worksheets to other popular application formats.

Notes:

• To quickly print the current worksheet as it is displayed on screen without using the Print Wizard, you can also use the printer icon on the Discoverer toolbar.

Exercise 2: Exporting data to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format

In this exercise you will learn how to export worksheet data to Microsoft Excel format.

You might want to share Discoverer data with people or organizations that do not have Discoverer. For example, they might have the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet package. Discoverer enables you to export worksheets in a range of commonly used application formats. Discoverer provides you with the Export Wizard to take you step-by-step through the export process. You will export a worksheet in the Video Tutorial Workbook tutorial workbook to Microsoft Excel format.

To export to Microsoft Excel format:

1. Display the Tabular Layout worksheet if it is not already displayed.

2. Choose File | Export to display the Export Wizard: Select Objects dialog.

   Figure 5-5 Export Wizard: Select Objects dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share3.gif

   The Export Wizard: Select Objects dialog enables you to select which worksheets to export.

3. Select the Current Sheet radio button.

   Notice that the Table/Crosstab only radio button is selected by default. This is because the tutorial workbook does not contain graphs.

4. Click Next to display the Export Wizard: Define File Details dialog.

   Figure 5-6 Export Wizard: Define File Details dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share4.gif

   The Export Wizard: Define File Details dialog enables you to select the export format and target location of the export file.

5. Choose Microsoft Excel workbook (*.xls) from the What export format do you want? drop down list.

   Notice that you can also export to many other formats, including Text (*.txt), CSV (*.csv), and Formatted Text (*.prn).

6. Do not change the default directory path and filename in the Where do you want to save the file? field (unless you want to save the export file in a different location).

7. Click Next to display to the Export Wizard: Supervise dialog.

   Figure 5-7 Export Wizard: Supervise dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share20.gif

   The Export Wizard: Supervise dialog enables you to choose whether to monitor the export process.

   To make sure that the most current data is printed, Discoverer refreshes the worksheet before printing it to make sure that the worksheet contains up-to-date data. Sometimes issues arise during the printing process (e.g. the query used to generate the report might exceed the maximum recommended time). You can specify whether you want to resolve such issues, or whether you want Discoverer to ignore them.

8. Select the Supervised radio button.

9. Click Finish to export the worksheet and display the Export Wizard: Export Log dialog.

   Discoverer exports the worksheet to Excel format and saves it in the location you specified.

   Figure 5-8 Export Wizard: Export Log dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share5.gif

   The Export Wizard: Export Log dialog shows you which export files were produced and whether any issues arose during the export.

10. (optional) If you have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer, select the Open the first exported sheet? check box.

11. Click OK to close the Export Wizard: Export Log dialog.

    If you have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer and previously selected the Open the first exported sheet? check box, the exported worksheet is displayed in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

    Figure 5-9 Discoverer worksheet exported to Microsoft Excel

    
    
    Text description of the illustration share6.gif

    If you did not previously select the Open the first exported sheet? check box, run the Microsoft Excel application and open the export file.

    In this exercise you have learned how to export Discoverer data to Microsoft Excel format. Now you are ready to learn how to share Discoverer worksheets with other Discoverer users.

Notes:

• As a shortcut, you can clicking the Export to Excel icon on the toolbar (or by choosing File | Export to Excel) to quickly export the current worksheet (i.e. instead of using the Export Wizard).

• To export a worksheet to Web format (i.e. HTML format), repeat the lesson, with the following changes:
  1. In the Export Wizard: Define File Details dialog, choose Hyper-Text Markup Language (*.htm) from the 'What export format do you want?' drop down list.

     The exported worksheet is displayed in a Web browser (see figure below).

     Figure 5-10 Discoverer worksheet exported to HTML format

     
     
     Text description of the illustration share10.gif

Exercise 3: Sharing workbooks

In this exercise you will learn how to enable other Discoverer users to access your workbooks using Discoverer Plus or Discoverer Viewer.

When you give other Discoverer users access to workbooks, you can do one of the following:

• give access to named users individually

• give access to all users

In this exercise, you will give access to all users using a public user ID called 'Public'.

1. Choose File | Manage workbook | Sharing to display the Share workbooks dialog.

   Figure 5-11 Share Workbooks dialog

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share21.gif

2. Display the User > Workbook tab.

   Figure 5-12 Share Workbooks: User > Workbook tab

   
   
   Text description of the illustration share13.gif

3. Choose PUBLIC from the User drop down list

4. To share the Video Tutorial Workbook workbook, move the Video Tutorial Workbook workbook from the Available list to the Shared list.

5. Click OK to save the details and close the Share Workbooks dialog.

   You have now shared the Video Tutorial Workbook workbook with other Discoverer users in your organization who are part of the PUBLIC role. Every time you update the workbook, public users will get the most current version.

Lesson summary

As you can see, Discoverer provides you with a wide range of options for sharing your results with others. In this lesson you:

• printed a worksheet

• exported a worksheet to Microsoft Excel format

• shared a workbook with other Discoverer users, enabling those users to access the workbook using Discoverer

Tutorial summary

Congratulations on completing the tutorial!

Now that you have learnt the basic Discoverer concepts, you can use your new skills to now go on to explore Discoverer's full range of analysis tools.

Remember, if you have questions about using the product, use Discoverer's online Help and context-sensitive Help buttons.