1. Working with Oracle Smart View for Office
  2. Free-Form Mode
  3. Free-Form Guidelines

Free-Form Guidelines

Consider these guidelines when working in free-form mode.

  • Grids do not need to start in cell A1.

  • A grid must have at least one row dimension and one column dimension.

  • Each row dimension can contain members of only one dimension. Each column dimension can contain members of only one dimension.

  • Members of one dimension can be entered only in one of the following regions:

    • In the same row

    • In the same column

    • Anywhere in the page dimension region (Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase only)

  • The page dimension region can contain members of different dimensions, but no two members in the page dimension region can belong to the same dimension (Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase only).

  • Dimensions entered into the page dimension region override any corresponding default or existing dimensions in the page dimension region. For example, if the page dimension contains a Year dimension, and you enter Qtr1, then Qtr replaces Year in the page dimension (Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase only).

  • The replacement labels specified in the Data Options page of the Options dialog apply in free-form mode.

  • Numerical entries are identified as data in the data region, and as comments outside the data region. If you want to use a number as a member name, precede it with a single quotation mark; for example, '100.

  • Precede member names that contain spaces between words with a single quotation mark.

  • When connected to a database that supports duplicate member names, select Distinct Member Name on the Member Options page of the Oracle Smart View for Office Options dialog box to display fully qualified member names in the worksheet. To enter duplicate members, use this syntax for qualified member names: 

    [Income].[Other]
[Expenses].[Other]

  • Aliases from the current alias table are permitted in free-form grids, but aliases from other alias tables are treated as comments.

  • In an ad hoc grid, if you insert a column and type a member name in the new column, and want to change the alias table for the sheet, you must first refresh the sheet before changing the alias table.

  • If a member name contains a comma (,), enclose the entire name in quotation marks (" ").

    Use this syntax:

    "mbr_name, mbr_name"

    For example:

    "Tablets, Smartphones"