Reporting in FreeSight is as flexible and simple as are all of the other FreeSight functions. You can print charts and tables. You can export them into multiple file formats. You can copy and paste them to other programs. Or, you can paste-link them directly into templates in other software tools such Microsoft Excel or Powerpoint so that those reports are updated every time you update your FreeSight model.
As you would expect, any selected Data or Analysis Table can be printed using the File/Print command from the FreeSight Menu bar. Print and Print Preview functions work as they do in almost any software.
The File/Export command gives you more flexibility. When you select File/Export from the Menu Bar, or simply right-click your mouse anywhere in your model, you see the Export Settings dialog box shown here. From the dialog box you select which Tables you wish to export, and you can choose your desired file format (.pdf, .csv, .txt, .xls or .xlsx). If you wish to use the same export settings over and over again, you can save that setting by name, and load it again next time you update your FreeSight model.
As you would expect, when you click Export from the dialog box, FreeSight asks you where to save the files. Selecting Save copies your charts and tables, as named, into this location.
Paste-linking allows you to copy charts or tables into Powerpoint and some other presentation software packages, so that the charts and/or tables are updated automatically every time you update them in your FreeSight model.
To copy and link a Table to Powerpoint, select the Table (or subset of the table you wish) and copy it using Copy or Ctrl-C. Open your Powerpoint presentation to the slide you want, and select Paste Special. In this dialog box, make sure that “FreeSight Data Set Object” is highlighted in the window. Now you can select Paste, which will copy the Table to your Powerpoint slide. Or, if you click the Paste Link button, it will create a hot link to FreeSight so that when your FreeSight model is updated, your Powerpoint slide will be updated automatically.
Charts are copied or linked to Powerpoint in the same manner, with one small variation in the process. From within FreeSight, right-click your mouse anywhere within the chart you wish to copy or link and select Copy Chart To Clipboard. Or from the Menu Bar, select Chart / Copy Chart To Clipboard. Now proceed to Powerpoint and select Paste Special. Everything else is the same.
FreeSight can also copy Data Tables into specific locations within an Excel spreadsheet. You can either export Tables into Excel formatted files, and then copy and paste them directly. Or, you can configure FreeSight to export your Data Tables directly into specific locations within worksheets in an existing Excel workbook.
To set this up using best practices, you’ll want to ensure that the names of your FreeSight Data Tables for export match the names of the destination worksheet tabs in your Excel file. Then, from the Export Settings dialog box, simply complete the “Settings for table {Table name}” section to pinpoint the destination for each Table to be exported.