The report preview allows you to verify the report before printing or exporting the information. It also offers the opportunity to sort the report according to your needs. Just click on the column headings (Last Name, First Name, Date, etc.) to sort in ascending order. A second click on the same heading resorts it in descending order.
The first step is to verify that the information you wanted is presented in the report. If the report matches your needs, then you can sort it.
1. Using the scroll bar on the left side of the report if necessary, review the report data.
• If the report fails to deliver what you need, then you can click on the View and Print Reports button on the toolbar to select a different report.
• Normally a report will be sorted in ascending order by the first column, then the second column, etc. Often this is all that is necessary to produce a usable report.
2. Either, if the report is sorted to your liking, click on the Printer Friendly Version button (bottom of page) and you will proceed to Step 4 - Printing the Report.
OR
If the sort order is fine but you would like to work with the report data in another program, such as Excel, then click on the Export Report to File button (bottom of page), which will open a new browser window and display the report data in a comma delimited format (see the next section, Working with Exported Data).
OR
If the report needs to be resorted, then proceed to the next step listed below.
• Each column heading (Last Name, First Name, Date, etc.) can be used to sort the report.
3. Choose the column heading you want to sort by, then click on it.
4. If you want to sort by additional columns, then click on those headings.
• Continue clicking on headings and resorting until the report is in an acceptable form.
5. Either, if the report is now sorted to your liking, click on the Printer Friendly Version button (bottom of page) and you will proceed to Step 4 - Printing the Report.
OR
If you would rather work with the report data in another program, then click on the Export Report to File button (bottom of page), which will open a new browser window and display the report data in a comma delimited format (see the next section, Working with Exported Data).
OR
If you don't want to print or export the data, then you can click on the Finished button and you will return to the initial report selection page.
Comma delimited text is an industry standard format for moving data between programs. It is very common and most database and spreadsheet programs fully support it. Each record in the report is on its own line. Each field in a record is placed in quotes and separated from the next field by a comma (hence the name "comma delimited"). It is important to know what order the fields are in, so the A+LS export routine puts the field names in order on the top line. The actual report data is displayed on the subsequent lines.
The goal of this procedure is to copy the data from the browser window where it is displayed and save it in a text file that can be imported by the program of your choice (see the previous procedure Step 3 - Review the Report for exporting to the browser window).
1. Select all of the data in the browser window, highlighting all of the text, scrolling if you need to.
Hint - In Windows you can click anywhere in the text, then use [Ctrl] A to select all of the data displayed in the browser window.
On the Macintosh click anywhere in the text, then use [Apple] A to select all of the data displayed in the browser window.
2. On the menu bar select Edit, then Copy.
• With the data copied temporarily to the clipboard, you need to open a text editor (NOT a word processor - they add corrupting information to the data). In Windows, Notepad is a good choice.
3. Open a text editor.
4. In the text editor paste the data from the clipboard, often this is done by selecting Edit on the menu bar, then Paste.
• The comma delimited data should now appear in the text editor. Next you'll save the data. It is recommended that you use a file name that clearly reflects the report name or type of data that was exported.
5. Save the data, typically this is done by selecting File on the menu bar then Save.
The exported data now resides in your new text file and is ready to be imported by programs such as Excel. Please consult your program's documentation for specific instructions on importing comma delimited files.