Saving Reports to Files

You can save your report to one of a number of file formats with the Save As button, including Excel, Text with Headers, CSV (comma-separated value), Dbase, and HTML. Please note, however, that what is saved does not look like the report. All data from each record will be across one row, regardless of the formatting on the screen. Totals will not be included. Numbers will not be formatted (e.g. you will see "1000.00" rather than "$1,000.00").

When you click Save As, a Save As dialog box comes up, where you can select the file format (under "Save as type") and the filename and directory to save it in.

The most common use of Save As is for Mail Merges, which will be explained in the next section.

Another thing you might want to do with Save As is to create limited versions of reports provided by this program. For instance, suppose you wanted a report listing only Member #, Last Name, and First Name. Find a report that includes that data (and more) such as Reports à Donor à Donation Info à Sort by Member/Envelope #. Run the report, then do the Save As, and save it in the Excel format. (I will assume you have Microsoft Excel.) Load the saved file into Excel, then delete the columns that you aren't interested in. Make any other desired changes (such as fixing up column widths and column headings), then print it.

Another way to make limited variations on existing reports is to use the Save SQL button on the Reports window. This allows you to save the SQL (Structured Query Language) instructions that generated the report to a file, for use with Database à SQL Select. See the section on that routine for more details.