Category Archives: News Releases

What is new in the latest version upgrades of OfficeWriter.

Enterprise Software, ExcelWriter, Featured, News Releases, OfficeWriter, PowerPointWriter

What’s New in OfficeWriter 9

OfficeWriter version 9 is now available! Here is a breakdown of what you can find in the latest version of OfficeWriter.

Calculation Engine

OfficeWriter version 9 kicks off with the initial release of the calculation engine for ExcelWriter. Now you can evaluate the formulas in your XLSX and XLSM files before delivering spreadsheets. Applications that can’t evaluate formulas, such as mobile apps, Outlook preview, or Excel in protected view, will show the updated values when workbooks are opened. You can also use the calculation engine to update formulas before reading them with ExcelApplication.

Currently, the calculation engine supports evaluating all of the formulas in a given workbook through the method Workbook.CalculateFormulas. This will update all the cell values based on the formulas. Check out our list of the formulas that the calculation engine supports.  If there’s a formula you need that we don’t have yet, contact our support team to submit a request!

PowerPointWriter

v9Blog5

The PowerPointWriter beta program has been going strong, and we’re excited for the official release. PowerPointWriter introduces a template-based approach to generating PowerPoint presentations (PPTX) dynamically.  Taking the best principles from ExcelWriter and WordWriter, PowerPointWriter is flexible and easy to learn.

Learn more about what PowerPointWriter can do for you with our Features overview,  use cases, and API Introduction and Tutorials.

New Excel Features

Pivot tables from multiple data sources

In OfficeWriter version 8.2, the PivotTable API for ExcelApplication was added to ExcelWriter. In OfficeWriter version 9 you can build multiple consolidation range pivot tables.  These pivot tables are created from multiple consolidation ranges and automatically generate pivot fields using the data. We have a short video to help explain how these special pivot tables work: [5 minutes with Chris – PivotTables]

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WORKSHEET PROTECTION PROPERTIES

ExcelWriter now offers the same protection options as Excel that change how a worksheet is locked down when it’s protected. Set SheetProtection properties to customize what users can interact with after Worksheet.Protect is called.  Check out our knowledge base article for more on how to use this new feature!

Binding custom objects to Excel

In OfficeWriter version 9 ExcelTemplate supports the ability to bind lists of custom objects to templates.  For example, you have some custom Order objects that contain information about OrderID, DeliveryDate, PurchaseAmount, and CustomerID. These Order objects are in a list called ListOfOrders.

In your template, you can reference the object properties in the data marker: %%=ListOfOrders.OrderID. ExcelWriter will treat each object in the list as though it were a row of data in a table.

For more information about how ExcelWriter imports data, please visit our documentation: ExcelWriter Basic Tutorials.

And more!

For more information about additional information about all of the changes in OfficeWriter, see our Change Log.

Featured, News Releases, OfficeWriter

What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.6

64-bit Support in OfficeWriter Designer

OfficeWriter 8.6 marks the initial release of the OfficeWriter Designer .NET, a redesign of the original OfficeWriter Designer, using the latest technologies and best practices.

DesignerdotNetRibbon

The OfficeWriter Designer .NET is available for both 64-bit and 32-bit Excel and includes:

  • Better user experience with updated dialog boxes
  • Improved access to Report Properties
  • Stronger support for viewing reports with parameters
  • New import template functionality (also available in the original OfficeWriter Designer)

DesignerDotNetNewDialogs

The Designer .NET does not currently have full backwards compatibility with the original OfficeWriter designer. To find out if the Designer .NET will support your reports, review our quick guide or read about all of the differences in full in our documentation.

The OfficeWriter Designer .NET is available for download from our product updates page or through our evaluation sign-up.

Classic Pivot Tables

Starting in OfficeWriter 8.6, you can create PivotTables with the classic grid layout using the PivotTableSettings.ClassLayout property. This is the same as setting the classic layout property under PivotTable options. Continue reading What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.6 →

Excel, Featured, News Releases, OfficeWriter, SharePoint, SQL Server, SSRS

What’s new in OfficeWriter 8.5

Spring has sprung, bringing with it our newest release of OfficeWriter: OfficeWriter 8.5!  What’s in store for this maintenance release? Scroll down to see the latest additions our development team has been working on.

WordTemplate – Embed DOCX files into templates

In OfficeWriter 8.0, we added the ability to embed RTF or HTML documents in Word files with WordTemplate.  The feature uses the document modifier to signify that a RTF or HTML document will be inserted. To learn more about using the document modifier, see our guide on inserting an embedded document under our WordTemplate Tutorials.

HTMLtoWord

We have also extended the feature to include DOCX files. Now you can embed other Word documents into your WordWriter templates. Continue reading What’s new in OfficeWriter 8.5 →

ASP.NET, Excel, Featured, News Releases, OfficeWriter

PivotTables Now Available within OfficeWriter 8.4

OfficeWriter 8.4

WATERTOWN, MA (February 12, 2013) – SoftArtisans announced the addition of PivotTables to their OfficeWriter product today. OfficeWriter 8.4 is now available for download. Included in this new version, is the ability to create, modify, and remove PivotTables within users’ Excel workbooks. With the new PivotTable functionality customers have the ability to add Report Filters to better filter and sort their data, as well as change the data source of a PivotTable (including PivotTables already copied with CopySheet). This provides users with more fine-grained control over their data and reports.

Also included in this product release are new features to their WordTemplate model. Within WordTemplate DOCX files, users now have the option to programmatically set the document properties of their DOCX files and to remove bookmarked content when delivering reports.

OfficeWriter provides customers Continue reading PivotTables Now Available within OfficeWriter 8.4 →

ASP.NET, Excel, Featured, News Releases, OfficeWriter, Programming, SQL Server, SSRS

What’s new in OfficeWriter 8.4

PIVOT TABLES ARE HERE!

OfficeWriter 8.4 packs a powerful punch with exciting new features, most notable of which is ExcelApplication support for PivotTables in OOXML (XLSX, XLSM) files. ExcelWriter already supports the use of PivotTables in ExcelTemplate and SSRS reports,  but now you can programmatically create, manipulate, and remove PivotTables with ExcelApplication.

BlogPostPivot

The new PivotTable API gives you the freedom to:

  • Create PivotTables from scratch (see our tutorial on Creating a Basic PivotTable)
  • Add and manipulate PivotTable fields – data value fields, column labels, row labels, and report filter page fields
  • Access common settings like empty/error values, refresh data when opening a file, and the number of cached items to retain

With the API you also have the ability to change the data source of a PivotTable. Continue reading What’s new in OfficeWriter 8.4 →

News Releases, OfficeWriter

What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.2

[cross-posted from www.officewriter.com/blog]

We kicked off 2012 with our first maintenance release of OfficeWriter 8 back in March. Now we’re continuing the trend with our next release, OfficeWriter 8.2, just in time for the end of Q2. Let’s take a quick spin around what we’re introducing:

Support for SQL Server Reporting Services 2012

We are proud to announce that the OfficeWriter Reporting Services Integration now supports SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2012, which was released earlier this year.

You may have heard that SSRS 2012 has added some functionality to their default Excel export option, but OfficeWriter can give those rich Excel and Word features that you can’t do without. Our very own Ozgur breaks down what keeps OfficeWriter ahead of the pack. Continue reading What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.2 →

News Releases, OfficeWriter

What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.1

OfficeWriter 8.1 marks the first maintenance release of OfficeWriter 8 and we focused on adding support of Office 2010 in the OfficeWriter Designer, including a brand new look that integrates with the Office 2007/2010 ribbon:

The OfficeWriter 8.1 Designer features full support for creating and viewing reports in Excel and Word 2010.

    The functionality is unchanged, but we’ve improved the icons and labels to make it easier to design reports in Excel and Word for OfficeWriter.

In addition to the work on the OfficeWriter Designer, we’ve added some new features to the OfficeWriter API:

  • Ability to unlink IF Fields in WordTemplate DOCX/DOCM files – Remove IF fields once they have been evaluated by WordTemplate using UnlinkIFFields
  • Support for Linked to Source in ExcelApplication – Detect whether chart labels are linking to the data source for number formatting  with SeriesDataLabel.LinkedToSource and Axis.LinkedToSource.
  • Improved support for tables in ExcelApplication for OOXML files

For a full list of features and fixes included in this release, check out our change log.

News Releases, OfficeWriter

What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.0?

server-side excel generation[cross-posted from officewriter.com]

OfficeWriter 8.0 was just recently released!  So, what’s new in this most significant release of OfficeWriter in a number of years?  Here’s the breakdown:

  • XLSX Support – Complete support for Excel 2007/2010 (XLSX) files in the ExcelApplication API
    • Programmatically create, manipulate, and read XLSX, XLS, and DOC
    • Run on your server with confidence – OfficeWriter is designed for high performance and scale
    • Build sophisticated Excel and Word reporting features into your applications
  • RTF/HTML import – Import arbitrary RTF and HTML documents into Word reports
    • Quickly and easily import markup into Word reports
    • Supports DOCX and DOC files
  • Enhanced documentation – New layout, new organization, new tutorials. We made it easier than ever for developers to find information they’re looking for at http://wiki.softartisans.com Continue reading What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.0? →