Improved Report Output

[briniker]

I have 3 suggestions for improving the report output:

1. When TT&D reports print the tables will get cut in awkward spots -- it would be better to not have page breaks in the middle of tables and only have tables split onto 2 pages if they won't fit on to 1 page.

2. I would like to be able to print all the tabs of data at once. Maybe giving the option of which Tabs (Cumulative, directional Summaries, directional Details) would satisfy this and give the option to print any combination of the data under the tabs.

3. I would like to be able to Save As or Export the reports to a spreadsheet (Excel, etc.). Currently I can copy the data into a spread sheet, but this is a laborious process and I always get this strange box, like a data entry field that pastes into the spread sheet, which cannot be deleted... however, if I copy the data again into a new spreadsheet, the box disappears.

[bullock]

Thank you for great suggestions.

1. Alas, this requires a major change in the underlying report format, which is currently XHTML (same format as most web pages), and the XHTML specification doesn't have the concept of a printed sheet of paper. ("Page" refers to different beasts in the two phrases "printed page" and "web page"). In the meantime, the best option is to probably first copy & paste the TT&D report into Word, and from there you can specify rules for printing long tables (e.g., don't break up tables, or repeat the header on the next page, etc.) before making the printout.
2. Great idea. It's now on the to-do list, and I'll try to implement it.
3. If you save the report to an .htm (or .html) file, then you may open the file directly in Excel (or other spreadsheet software), resulting in a spreadsheet. I see what you mean about that strange box when you paste into the Excel. How weird. I'll look into the problem.

Regards.
Greg

[bullock]

3. Looking further into the oddity where that strange box gets pasted into the Excel, it seems to be an artifact of Excel's changing the clipboard when you open Excel, and you can work around the oddity by opening Excel before you copy the TT&D Report from Tru-Traffic.

To test this, I used Tru-Traffic with both Excel and OpenOffice Calc (or LibreOffice Calc), and the results depend on when you open Excel -- before or after copying the TT&D in Tru-Traffic to the clipboard.

If you like, you can leave out the Calc portions of these tests, as it may be sufficiently persuasive to observe what happens with just Excel & Tru-Traffic alone.

Test A (Open Excel First).

1. Open Excel, Tru-Traffic and Calc.
2. Generate the TT&D report in Tru-Traffic and copy to the clipboard.
3. In Calc, choose Edit: Paste Special, and observe that there are three formats available for pasting: Unformatted text, HTML format, and Formatted text (RTF).
4. In Excel, choose Home: Paste: Paste Special, and observe that again there are three formats are available for pasting: HTML, Unicode Text, and Text.
5. Paste the HTML and observe that the TT&D report pastes correctly.

Test B (Copy TT&D Report First).

1. Open Tru-Traffic and Calc, but leave Excel closed for now.
2. Generate the TT&D report in Tru-Traffic and copy to the clipboard.
3. In Calc, choose Edit: Paste Special, and observe that there are three formats available for pasting: Unformatted text, HTML format, and Formatted text (RTF).
4. Open Excel.
5. In Calc, choose Edit: Paste Special, and observe that now there's only one format available for pasting: Bitmap.
6. In Excel, choose Home: Paste: Paste Special. Observe that now there's only one format available for pasting: Bitmap.
7. Paste the Bitmap and observe that the strange box pastes instead of the TT&D report.

Somebody who knows more about Excel could probably tell us what's happening and, possibly, how to avoid it. But these tests show that: (a) Excel is changing the clipboard upon opening, and (b) you can work around the oddity by opening Excel before you copy the TT&D Report from Tru-Traffic.

Regards.
Greg