3 Office Integration with BI Dashboard Feature in Release 10.1.3.3

This new feature enables users to save reports in PowerPoint format and to paste reports directly into Microsoft Office applications.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• Section 3.1, "Overview of Integration with Dashboards"

• Section 3.2, "Configuration for the Office Integration with BI Dashboard Feature"

3.1 Overview of Integration with Dashboards

Two new Interactive Dashboard features have been added to this release that provide additional interactivity with Microsoft Office. These features complement the new Oracle BI Add-ins for PowerPoint and Excel that provide functionality natively within those Office applications. For more information on the Oracle BI Add-ins for PowerPoint and Excel, see Chapter 31, "Installing Oracle BI for Microsoft Office in Release 10.1.3.3"and Chapter 32, "Microsoft Office Support in Release 10.1.3.3.".

The first new Dashboard feature is "Download to PowerPoint", which adds PowerPoint alongside Excel as a targeted application for downloaded reports. This new link is found within the "Report Links" Download menu and downloads a static version of that report to PowerPoint. Like the other Download options, when the link is first clicked, the user has the choice of directly saving the report to disk or opening it immediately. The add-in need not be installed to use this functionality.

The second new Dashboard feature provides a means to copy and paste Dashboard reports directly into Office applications. This functionality is available along with the other Dashboard Report Links configured using the Dashboard Editor. A new "Copy" link can be added to a report that copies the XML definition of the current report to the Windows clipboard. Pasting this link using the Paste function in the Oracle BI menu converts the copied XML into an Office version of that report. Naturally this functionality is present only in versions of either PowerPoint or Excel in which the Oracle BI Add-in has been installed. Once pasted, this Dashboard report is translated into native Office objects that can be subsequently refreshed with live data at any point. Pasting the link directly using Edit/Paste either in Office or any other application (such as a text editor) copies the request XML without translation.

3.2 Configuration for the Office Integration with BI Dashboard Feature

Access to both of these Dashboard Report Links can be administered using the Access to Oracle BI Office Add-in privilege.