.csv will certainly get into a format that excel can read, but this is dependent on a couple of things..
1. .csv must be associated with excel.. this is default as far as I know, but thats not to say that something else might not be associated with .csv on your system (this is a 'per-system' thing)
2. this only gets data into excel in a very raw format.. not really very pretty or much real use for complex reports. not much use of colors, logos, formulas, etc.
In order to really leverage the power of Excel, you need to pull bits and pieces of most reports from an MFG .RPT and map them to different regions of a spreadsheet tab. This is why mapping tools are superior. They're a little more complex in terms of developing the blank spreadsheets, but once developed, they produce a far nicer looking output with colors, shading, graphics, formulas, charts and all sorts of things that even MFG perhaps forgot! example........ the MFG report may have failed to total a column that you want totaled........ so importing the column into Excel via a mapping tool and setting an Excel formula to total the column. See? Adding simple Excel formulas to imported MFGPro data can greatly enhance what you are able to do without changing one line of MFGpro report source.
.CSV is a nice enough method, but it's really not useful to the end user... unless removing end-user tinkering is not a priority!
Regards
Tony Burtovoy
http://www.sprolinux.com
http://www.sprolinux.com/products/tfdemo/index.htm
1. .csv must be associated with excel.. this is default as far as I know, but thats not to say that something else might not be associated with .csv on your system (this is a 'per-system' thing)
2. this only gets data into excel in a very raw format.. not really very pretty or much real use for complex reports. not much use of colors, logos, formulas, etc.
In order to really leverage the power of Excel, you need to pull bits and pieces of most reports from an MFG .RPT and map them to different regions of a spreadsheet tab. This is why mapping tools are superior. They're a little more complex in terms of developing the blank spreadsheets, but once developed, they produce a far nicer looking output with colors, shading, graphics, formulas, charts and all sorts of things that even MFG perhaps forgot! example........ the MFG report may have failed to total a column that you want totaled........ so importing the column into Excel via a mapping tool and setting an Excel formula to total the column. See? Adding simple Excel formulas to imported MFGPro data can greatly enhance what you are able to do without changing one line of MFGpro report source.
.CSV is a nice enough method, but it's really not useful to the end user... unless removing end-user tinkering is not a priority!
Regards
Tony Burtovoy
http://www.sprolinux.com
http://www.sprolinux.com/products/tfdemo/index.htm
) but unveils a little how easy it is to transform Visual Basic Language into 4GL code.