Real Excel Templates 1.5
- by Tim Dexter
Not the next installment quite yet, just an update from what I knew yesterday. Right after I posted the Real Excel Templates I. Mike from the PM team got in touch to say he and Shirley had just had a meeting with a customer about the Excel Templates and all the fab features. He included BIPs extended functions, data pre-processing, sub templates and other functionality which was great new news.
One caveat, much of the really new stuff, is not quite out in the wild yet. Will let you know as soon as I know more.
Shirley and I shared a conversation around being able to re-group data in the templates. It's one of the most powerful features of the RTF template. Providing the ultimate flexibility in layouts. As I wrote yesterday, you need hierarchical data for Excel templates. I stand corrected, 'Of course you can do that in Excel, here's an example' said Shirley
'Very cunning Shirley, very cunning' says I.
You can basically use the hidden sheet to re-group the data using native XSL. I'll cover the 'how' later.
As you can see Excel templates are the new 'black' with lots of attention and more importantly development cycles to take them forward.
Looks like we are going to have a great weekend weather wise here in Colorado. The yard work and pond are beckoning. Maybe the trout will be rising and I can give my rusty fly casting skills a run for their money. I need some stupid fish thou :0)
See ya'll next week!
