Using the Report Manager

We are all familiar with reports. In fact, in many businesses it seems we spend a good part of each day either reading, developing, or printing reports. In Excel, however, a report is similar to a view. A report is nothing but a stored definition of how you want a workbook printed. Reports are made up of sections, and each section can contain a different worksheet within the workbook and, optionally, a view and scenario for that worksheet. (Views and scenarios were covered in other issues of ExcelTips.)

Reports are created and accessed using the Report Manager add-in, which is not an integral part of Excel. It is an add-in that can be added to or removed from Excel, depending on your needs. When you first install Excel, the Report Manager is typically not enabled. You can check to see if the Report Manager is available by pulling down the View menu. If there is a Report Manager option, it is already installed and enabled on your system.

If you cannot find a Report Manager option in the View menu, you will need to make sure the Report Manager is enabled by following these steps:

1. Choose Add-Ins from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Add-Ins dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
2. Scroll through the list of available add-ins (if necessary), and make sure there is a check mark in the box to the left of the Report Manager option.
3. Click on the OK button.

At this point Excel enables the add-in. If necessary, you are led through the process of installing the add-in from CD. You should now be able to see the Report Manager option in the View menu.

If you cannot find the Report Manager option in the list of available Add-Ins (step 2), and you are using Excel 97 or Excel 2000, you will need to run the Excel (or Office) setup program again and make sure you install it from there.

If you are using Excel 2002, the Report Manager is not available through the setup program. Instead you must download it to your system from the Microsoft Web site. Using the online help system, search for "report manager," and then follow the download instruction. You can then make sure the Report Manager add-in is enabled in Excel.

If you are using Excel 2003, you won't be able to locate information about the Report Manager by using online help. This is because Microsoft is trying to phase out the add-in, even though it still has real value for some users. Don't despair; the same add-in you can download and use with Excel 2002 can also be downloaded and used with Excel 2003. You can find more information on exactly how to do this by using the following article in the Knowledge Base:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873209