>Thank you for your responses.
>
>> I also recommend Excel Automation. Come to think of it, I did almost all recent reports at Bata/Bolivia with Excel Automation, but reports with a variable number of columns, or extra-wide reports, are especially fit for this.
>Indeed, Excel helps in that it can provide a means of tiling the output. As I stated earlier, the snag involving Excel automation would having to ask the customer to *buy* a copy of Excel for every workstation from which they want to run the report. That's part of the reason why I was asking on information regarding OpenOffice -- it'll be much easier to request that a copy of OpenOffice would be installed is going to be easier than asking them to purchase a copy of Excel for every workstation.
>
>> Perhaps my download #9991 (Text reports and Excel reports) can help you a bit.
>Hmm... going to have to take a look at that. Thanks!
>
>Well... at least I should be glad that the customer requesting the report is running running in the more recent copy built using VFP rather than the older one that used FPW...

Well, first of all, you should decide whether Excel is appropriate or not. For example, if you can't assume that all clients have Excel installed, then perhaps it isn't - or it will be an "extra" feature only available to those who do have Excel.

The technical aspect is not so problematic: One of the reasons I use Excel for reports is that - with my current experience and tools - it is actually less work to do the report for Excel! Of course, at first I considered it a daunting task.

If you are new to Automation, you might want to take a look at my introductory article, Excel Automation, Universal Thread Magazine, September 2002.

The class (download #9991), however, helps automate some common tasks for reports - like keep track of break expressions and reprint group headers and footers for each group, for example.