Menu | <<<< | >>>> | [A New Report (*.rpt)] – sheet with comments shown

Clicking the [Create New Empty Report (*.rpt)] button on the Report Writer control screen creates a new blank report sheet with the name you choose. This blank sheet can be turned into a report workbook using normal Excel editing features. The VORSIM pull-down menu contains commands for either linking cells in the sheet to solution or other workbooks or copying data from workbooks to this sheet. While the report must be created with normal Excel techniques, the VORSIM menu commands simplify the report data entry process with automated cut and paste or workbook linkage techniques. Choices are offered regarding formatting as well; you can create cell formats when you design the report or alternatively, you can copy data from solutions etc. along with the format of the data. Finally a most important feature is that you can change the link in active cells. This is especially powerful because if you change the link from on solution workbook to another, all similar links will be changed in the report. This means that a designed report, when set up with these automatic linkages to solutions, can be instantly changed by simply linking to a different set of solutions.

All methods of copying data to a report workbook result in a comment in the target cell which gives the data source for the block. This information can be used to automatically update the transferred data in the report. This is useful if data blocks have been moved or if source data values have changed.

The example above shows the same block of data from a solution file transferred to a report workbook using three different methods. The comments containing the source information for each block are shown.