I want to be able to run a workflow from right out of Dynamics that will "mail merge" into excel and attach the result into email. Something like an excel version of automerge would be amazing.
We have set templates the data would need to be pushed to, for sending onto various companies for engineer bookings.
Any ideas the easiest way of doing this?
You can do that the quick way by exporting data (there's a button on the ribbon for that). However, it's more nice if you design a function that produces a CSV-file containing what you need. The optimal design depends on the exact requirements of your task.
Related
I have an excel spreadsheet with multiple sheets. I'm trying to create a sharepoint list for each sheet and when the excel spreadsheet is updated, the sharepoint is updated.
It looks like you can link an access database with sharepoint but I'm struggling to find a guide to link a sharepoint with an excel.
it isn't possible to modify a spreadsheet and have it update SharePoint, you can only update the spreadsheet with changes from SharePoint.
From reading the MS documentation found at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Synchronize-a-SharePoint-list-with-a-spreadsheet-program-d4337a01-2be4-43b5-bb42-28aefe64eafd
There are three ways to synchronize data between a SharePoint list and
a spreadsheet program. Whichever way you choose, this synchronization
is one-way, or unidirectional. Changes made in the SharePoint list can
be updated in the spreadsheet program, but any changes that you make
in the spreadsheet program are not written to the SharePoint list.
It seems that the best you can do is to update SharePoint by creating a new list, but that probably isn't going to help you unless you can somehow use the new list to replace the old one.
As you state, you can do a bi-directional synch from Access, and this is confirmed by the MS documentation https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Synchronize-a-SharePoint-2010-list-with-Access-2010-975BFB97-C799-4FCE-B7CC-3DB3B397F116
There are three ways to synchronize data between a SharePoint list and
Access 2010. Whichever way you choose, this synchronization is
two-way, or bi-directional.
This is possible with MS Flow, though it requires a bit of effort. You can then trigger the flow based off any conditions you want (Excel doc saved, once a day, etc)
Instructions can be found here: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Update-Sharepoint-List-From-Excel-File/td-p/111477
I have a list on Sharepoint,and I would like to update that list from any excel sheet/file I create "Having same formatting of course". Can I achieve that? I know that you can create a List on sharepoint from an excel sheet "Table Format" but I couldn't find any solution to sync sharepoint list from any excel sheet. Shall I do some scripting to achieve that ? I'm using Excel 2010 and Sharepoint 2010
Do you need to actually do any further interactions with the SharePoint list?
If not, a solution could be to just display the excel sheeet as a Range within a page. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ee556820.aspx
Don't think you get my point. Suggesting that you do not use a list at all. Just display the excel sheet directly.
If you do need to update a list from excel, you must use scripting of some kind. Question is if you can call the script from within excel, or it must happen when uploading the excel sheet.
Perhaps if you tell the complete scenario, it is easier to help.
Since I need further interaction with the list, I have decided to go with Access, which provides an out of the box solution. Simply create a blank database and link it with the desired list on SharePoint and that would be it.
I work for a fairly large hospital in their Decision Support Department. We have several tools at our disposal for querying data, but our way of distributing the information could use some work.
We typically run our query and then copy and paste the data into Excel. From there we create graphs and crunch some numbers before sending the Excel file out via email.
We've recently been given access to our own Sharepoint site and so far it looks promising for document distribution. What I'm wondering though is this; what kind of functionality is built into Sharepoint for building reports that run automatically.
It would be great to take a whack of our monthly query to Excel reports and set them up to run automatically via Sharepoint.
I did some reading about Sharepoint lists and that seems promising, but I thought I'd ask here for the best way to go about this - provided it's even possible.
I guess a good first step would be how to create a report in Sharepoint?
I'm going to assume you're using Sharepoint 2013 and Office 2013.
You have a couple options available to you with Excel and Access. Both methods I'll briefly describe can be automated. In either case, you will need Lists, as they can connect to Excel and Access as tables.
For the Excel route, simply choose the "Export to Excel" option in a SharePoint list. This will create an Excel version of your list, but it's more than a static workbook--that workbook retains a one-way link from SharePoint to Excel, so you can refresh the spreadsheet to reflect the most up-to-date version of your SharePoint list. Furthermore, you can link multiple Lists to a single workbook--you'll have to export each list to Excel individually, but each worksheet will still retain its link to its respective list after you consolidate the spreadsheets into a single workbook. You can save this workbook wherever you like, it'll still keep the link. I personally like to set my linked workbooks up with macros that automatically refresh the spreadsheet whenever file is opened, but that's just me. The reason you might consider this option would be to avoid having to recreate the work of creating graphs and whatever other analytics you're doing--you may well be able to set yourself up such that the graphs and analytics pull live from the table that's coming in from SharePoint.
*Do note that changes you make to list data in Excel isn't sent back to SharePoint--this is done to protect your list.
For the the Access route, you can import a list into Access as a table. This option creates a dynamic link to your SharePoint list the same way the Excel option does--the link is one-way and what you do in Access won't be sent back to SharePoint. You can create queries and reports as you normally would after the table is imported.
On a daily basis we need to export Excel sheets (showing tables + charts) with then current SSAS data and copy the sheets into specific SharePoint document folders. I guess moving the sheets to SharePoint is the smaller task, since the folder can be used like a windows directory. I am uncertain about how to do the rest. I considered:
1) SSRS, schedule the export via Server Agent somehow (I guess this is possible since reports can be exported to Excel so the automated export is probably doable without jumping through too many loops).
2) Design the report in Excel instead (with pivot tables + charts), put this as a template into a Sharepoint library and somehow make the sheet update from the Data Source and export it into a static (not connected) sheet on a daily basis.
While I am quiet sure that 1) is doable I am totally unsure about 2), but 2) has the valuable benefit that the domain expert can make up the sheet without having to install and mess with the Report Designer.
I am thankful for any comment about approach 1 or 2 or any alternative.
If you go with your option 1, consider setting up an email enabled SharePoint list and setting up a subscription in SSRS to email the Excel reports to that list.
For the email enabled list see
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-sharepoint-services-help/add-content-to-sites-by-sending-e-mail-HA010086730.aspx
For the SSRS subscription see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159762.aspx
It does have the drawback that your subject matter experts might have to learn ReportBuilder, but if they can learn Excel then ReportBuilder shouldn't be too much of a stretch. If you do get option 2 working, though, post back, it sounds interesting.
I have an Excel report showing a pivot table pulling data from a Data Model on Sharepoint.
I need to filter the report by each "manager" in the company(10 managers in total), so that every manager sees it's own report with it's own data.
Because reports are sharepoint integrated, i cannot play with macros.
What solution would you use to solve this problem?
My idea so far is to create a manager slicer, select manager, hide slicer and save excel. For a total of 10 excel reports. Not sure if that's a decent way tho.
I would also like to avoid creating 10 data models.
Any idea is welcome, thanks.
gg.nz,
I would opt out for using PowerView for creating easy-to-use dashboards. That will allow you to easily manage users as well. Creating 10 duplicated Excel files can be quite time-consuming and updating them manually would be not a smart way to go since you have SharePoint & Office 2013 functionality available.
See this post with detailed instructions how to use PowerView dashboards.