How to rebrand exported documents with ReportPlus

ReportPlus version 3.0 added several options when it comes to exporting a dashboard. Previously it was only possible to generate a PowerPoint file, while now it´s possible to choose between PDF, Word, and CSV files as well. For each widget in a dashboard a new document page, or slide in the case of a PowerPoint is generated. In the case of CSV files, for each widget a new csv file is created and they are all packed in one zip file.

Despite the export choice, by default all exported documents display the logo of ReportPlus, and use a light shade of blue as the corporate color. Since version 1.0 one of the most repeated pieces of feedback we’ve heard from our user base was to allow for end users to be able to change the logo and color used to match their own company logo, and aesthetics. We’ll, I’m glad to tell you that now that is possible with version 3.0.

Export Settings

The first dialog displayed when you tap on the Export item of the Actions menu, shows the export formats available to choose from.

If you pay attention there’s a new option on the top right of that dialog, which reads “Settings”. By tapping on this option we access the Export Settings dialog, which allows the following configurations:

• Author Name, used as footer in PDF and Word document formats.
• Company Name, used if the company logo is left empty.
• Company Logo. Image to be displayed in the header of the exported document.
• Company Color. Color used to render the title, and a separator line.

By changing this attributes we can customize the look of the generated document.   The following are some examples of rebranded exported documents.

Advanced Export Settings

Export settings also allow you to customize how information is trimmed when it comes to generating the document. For instance widgets may have data sets with tens of columns but it’s usually more confusing than anything else showing more than 7 (plus or minus 2 J ) columns. So ReportPlus allows you to top how many columns are generated in the document regardless of the volume of the data set used. The same goes for the number of rows generated in the document.

Annotating Exports

Beyond the new export rebranding support, version 3.0 introduces the ability to make annotations on top of the exported images. If you tap the detail of a page in the export wizard you are now presented with a new button labeled “Annotate” which allows you to add notes and shapes on top of the image to introduce another layer of information, providing more context, and allowing pay attention to the one important detail.

Closing thoughts

Dashboards are dynamic, interactive, and meant to be understood at a glance, but sometimes you need to be able to communicate status in a different format. There are times when that message crosses organizational boundaries, or is meant to be archived and become a formal witness of the status of things at one point in time. For all these scenarios ReportPlus allows you to go from dynamic and interactive dashboards to documented and detailed reports that can be annotated and shared. As we’ve seen in this article, with ReportPlus version 3.0, the available options for these “reporting” scenarios have been expanded considerably.