BW Bex 3.x Macros to create Formatted Workbooks – Part 2

Link to the First Blog After having a brief overview of the issues in creating formatted reports with 3.x Web & BEx Analyzer, now we will look in setting up an offline demo of BW BEx Macros and see it in action.

There are 2 basic files that are needed to run the sample file with Macros.
A. BW Macro Addin [SAPTECHEDBIM301_DEMO_VA1.1.xla]
B. Sample BW Workbook with a query. [SAPTECHEDBIM310_DEMO_ADDIN_V1.3.xls]

Steps to setup an offline demo of BW BEX Macros.

1. Download the xla file from here to a local folder in your pc/laptop.

2. Download the xls file from here to the same local folder in your pc/laptop.

If you have problems in downloading the files, click here to download the zip file. Note : The above example works only with Excel 2003 in Windows XP.

3. After downloading both the files, double click on the xla file. This is the BW Macro Addin which enables creating formatted workbooks. Following message shown in the picture pops up, click on “Enable” .

4. Double click on the xls to open the sample workbook that has a SAP BW Query into it.

5. You would see a sample BEx Report embedded in the workbook. The workbook contains a tab named “BWMacros”.
6. The BW BEx Toolbar must be visible {Toolbar with four buttons} If not it can be enabled by doing a right click on the top section of the excel as shown in the picture.

7. After enabling the BW Macros you mush be able to see the toolbar with 4 buttons.

8. The sample workbook has following sections

Report header
Navigational Block
Filter Block
Result area.

9. Click “Navigation” button in the BW Macro Toolbar to hide the navigational block.

10. Click “Filter” button in the BW Macro Toolbar to hide the filter block

11. Click on “Format” button to create 2 additoinal sheets automatically. The sheets are created after the main tab “BWMacros”. The tabs are named “BWMacrosFormat” & “BWMacrosPrint” as shown in the figure.

12. The “BWMacrosPrint” tab is protected from changes and is mainly for printing. The print settings are set automatically based on the report output.

13. Go to “BWMacrosFormat” tab and maintain all the formatting such as changing font, color, adding rows, columns, calculations etc.

14. Once the formats are done, click the refresh button in the BW Macros tool bar to carry on the formatting from the Format sheet to the Print sheet.

15. To see what happens when the data changes, try to change some data in BWMacros tab which is nothing but the bw query data.

16. Press “Refresh” button from the toolbar to see the data getting reflected in the “BWMacrosPrint” tab.

Note : Do not change the tab name as this is only the demo version. In case if you are stuck and want further assistance, you can reach me at dinaish@gmail.com or dinaish@yahoo.com.

13 Comments

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Former Member November 6, 2006 at 7:02 am

When I clicked the download for the .xla file it promts me to download a .xls file with the same name except for the extension. Is this what’s supposed to happen?

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1. Former Member Post authorNovember 6, 2006 at 7:57 am
  
  If you have problems in downloading the files, click here to download the zip file.
  
  http://www.netsaptech.com//SDN/PhilipsDemo/BIM301_Demo.zip
  
  like (0)
  1. Former Member November 6, 2006 at 12:40 pm
    
    HI Dinesh, I am on BW 3.5 with Excel 2000. BEx version level 3500.1.007.
    
    I got message when .xla is opened: “Microsoft Excel cannot find ‘shapeAction’ on ‘sapbex.xla’.
    
    There are two possible reasons:
    1) The name you specified may not be defined.
    2) The name you specified is defined as something than rectangular cell reference.
    Do I need to upgrade my Excel OR BEx level? Where it’s going wrong.
    Thanks in advance…
    
    like (0)
    1. Former Member Post authorNovember 6, 2006 at 12:59 pm
      
      Hi,
      
      Thanks for pointing this.
      Note : The above example works only with Excel
      2003 in Windows XP.
      
      Rgds
      Dinesh
      
      like (0)
Former Member November 7, 2006 at 10:26 pm

Hi

I have downloaded the files, clicked on the XLA, then the XLS, enabled macros, still no toolbar displaying.

I even included the XLA as an add-in in Excel

I am running Excel 2003 SP2, and Windows XP Professional

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Andrew

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1. Former Member Post authorNovember 8, 2006 at 11:41 am
  
  Hi Andrew,
  
  Did u download the zip file or downloaded the file directly from the link.
  
  Can u download this file, it will have the toolbar.
  
  http://www.netsaptech.com//SDN/PhilipsDemo/SAPTECHEDBIM310_DEMO_ADDIN_V1.3.xls
  
  The blog has updated links.
  
  Rgds
  Dinesh
  
  like (0)
Former Member November 14, 2006 at 8:20 am

Dinesh:

I am running Windows XP with MS Excel. I’ve tried to follow your instructions for the offline demo, but I am a getting a error when I click on any of the four buttons:

File count not be accessed:

Try one of the following:

Make sure specified folders exits.
Make sure folder that contains file is not read only.
Make sure file does not contain any of the following characters …
Make sure file/path doesn’t contain more than 218 characters.

Please advise or email at binois@yahoo.com

Thanks.

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1. Former Member November 21, 2006 at 2:20 am
  
  Hi Dinesh,
  
  Although we use Excel 2003/Windows XP, it still doesn’t work. I receive the same error message as stated above.
  
  Can you help?
  
  Regards,
  Eddy
  
  like (0)
  1. Former Member January 13, 2007 at 12:15 pm
    
    Hi Dinesh,
    
    I am also getting the same error message.Pls advise
    
    like (0)
Former Member November 20, 2006 at 7:15 pm

Hi,

Thanks for introduction of Macros Blog.

I am new to macros concept. I have downloaded the macros and the sample workbook.

Could you please mention the steps for attaching this macros to other reports.

thanks,
raj
raj.pokala@goodmanfielder.com.au

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1. Former Member Post authorNovember 23, 2006 at 12:16 pm
  
  Raj,
  
  Thanks for looking into this option.
  Right now the samples work only in XP and Excel 2003 verson.
  As the clients are having different OS and Office version it is difficult to provide one xla that meets all the requirements.
  Also Companies have different report layout requirements the xla has to be adjusted according to the requirements.
  There is a third blog that would be discussing more about the report layouts.
  If you need it earlier, please let me know the layout requirements through a mail – dinaish@gmail.com, will send in details
  
  Rgds
  Dinesh
  
  like (0)
  1. Former Member January 24, 2007 at 3:00 am
    
    Hi Dinesh,
    
    you said:
    > There is a third blog that would be discussing
    > more about the report layouts.
    
    Has this 3rd blog been already published? I can’t find it on SDN.
    
    Regards, Davide
    
    like (0)
Former Member August 24, 2007 at 7:28 am

Note to those who try to use this set of macros and receive an error saying a file can’t be found – the macros in the toolbar are pointing to a directory tree that probably doesn’t exist on your computer. To correct this, right click on the toolbar and select Customize. Right click on the individual macro and select “Assign Macro…” to change the location of the respective file.
Hope this helps.

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