In my last post I showed how a new Microsoft Word report could be created by copying an existing report. The method that I showed is how this works in version 3.3.0 onwards. It’s very simple: create your new document; copy an existing Report Manager report; give your copy a name and make it point to your new file.
Prior to version 3.3.0 the process was similar but not quite so straightforward (which is why we changed it). Previously the act of copying a report actually created the new Word document for you. This is how it works in older versions:
1. Run the Report Manager and select the report that you want to copy.
2. Click Copy
3. Enter a new name for your report
4. Click the hyperlink labelled Specify the new report definition file name. The contents of this file will be copied from the source report
5. Then you could edit the new Word document
There might not seem to be much difference:
With the latest version you create the Word document and put it wherever you like
With older versions e-Quip created the Word document and put it where you chose
Lots of people (including me) found this confusing. They would create a Word document in the right place and then when they clicked Copy it would then be overwritten with a copy of the original. I’m hopeful that this change will make the process a lot simpler