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Author's profile photo Sharon Om

Simple Offline Sharing – Let’s ask customers

What’s Up?

Through Idea Place (D12191) and interactions with you, we took your feedback asking for quick and easy sharing of Lumira by supporting exporting and printing. As we look into these requirements closely, we came up with a few new ideas and questions which we would like to further discuss.

As a starting point, we are prototyping exporting stories to PDF format. Each page of PDF is intended to capture the static snapshot of a board “as is”. This will allow both presenting the stories or printing.  It will mean that you as the author of the stories will have to do certain amount of “fitting” in Lumira.

What’s Next?

Assuming that exporting stories to PDF becomes a generally available feature in an upcoming release of Lumira (works from both desktop and web), I would like to have a bit more elaborated discussion on other requirements.

Tell Us

Q1. Is it still useful to support exporting story into Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation (PPTX), in a similar manner to PDF, capturing a snapshot of one storyboard into one slide? How would this benefit you?

Q2. If we could turn images into Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format and automatically export to Microsoft document (PPTX or Word), but would only limit the feature to Lumira Desktop (Windows) and not from Lumira Server or Lumira Cloud, would it still meet your business expectation?

Q3. How would you rank the following 5 export options in order of highest value to the lowest value?

(1) Export visualizations used in the story into individual vector file (eg. EMF or SVG) and save the collection to a file location (1 visualization = 1 file)

(2) Export visualizations used in the story into individual PNG image (not vector type) on each slide of the PowerPoint (1 image per slide)

(3) Export a storyboard as a snapshot on each slide of the PowerPoint (1 board per
slide)

(4) Export story to HTML

(5) Export a story to SAP Design Studio and build application and apply further
customizations

Q4.Which of the above 5 options do you think we should not invest at all, at least in the foreseeable future (*hint* we have over hundred open Ideas on Idea Place which we would like to work on 😉 )?

Q5. If you could only get 2 options out of the 5, what will be your recommendations?  Assume that export to PDF will be supported.

Q6. If we could deliver Export to PDF and 1 of the 5 mentioned in Q3, would you recommend that we

A. still consider printing stories directly from Lumira a high priority to deliver within the next 12 months

B. focus our resources on delivering other highly voted requirements?

Any other feedback you would like us to consider? Please let us know. We will take the feedback discussed in this forum as well as from others, incorporate into our strategy and let you know what we finally decide to do.

Thank you for reading, thinking, and sharing your insights 🙂

Sharon

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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      This is a great idea on it's own Sharon. The Idea Place is a great place to nurture these ideas, but, getting them out to the SCN crowd in a place they are very familiar with is a great way to see what is really important to our customers and partners. Hope to see more of this in the future. Maybe even with my idea 😉 .

      Author's profile photo Sharon Om
      Sharon Om
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Chris! I am glad that you like it.  And thanks for the nudge 🙂   You are sneaky. I like it! Your idea is on my radar.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Q1. Yes, it is beneficial. Although Lumira's graphic-creation capabilities are great, we need to make these developments relevant to pre-established applications. PPT is and will remain a widely-utilized tool across man LoBs. As an employee working on many communications-related projects in different areas like IT and Corporate Audit, I use PPT on a daily basis. I am always looking for new, simpler ways to create visualizations. Lumira makes that possible, but the inability to post what I create to Word or PPT takes away the purpose of creating the visualization in Lumira in the first place, aka...A waste of time. A lot of pretty design with a lack of functionality.

      Q2. Yes.

      Q3. 3, 2, 1, 5, 4

      Q5. 3, 2

      Q6. B

      Author's profile photo Sharon Om
      Sharon Om
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you Christina for the quick and very insightful feedback. Exactly what I am looking for!!

      Author's profile photo Karl-Heinz Brenzinger
      Karl-Heinz Brenzinger

      Hi Sharon,

      I assume if you say story, you refer to all story type (or at least to board and info graphics).

      Q1: pdf is beneficial as it also supports printing although it only support very limited interaction. So my wish would be that the pdf export would (optionally) be able to support mouse-over action to show the data behind graphs (Yes, some people tend to not believe graphics, if you cannot, on demand, show the numbers :-))

      Q2: No. I do not see which additional featues this would support.

      Q3:

      4 (if self-contained and with interaction, like a vizpacker in one file, data might be compressed),
      3 (if as editable object),

      1 (=SVG to be cross platform),

      2,

      5

      Q4:

      5, 2

      Q5:

      4, 3

      Q6:
      B (what better printing than via pdf vould you have??)

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Q1 - I agree with  Karl-Heinz Brenzinger

      Q2 - No

      Q3 4,3,5,2,1

      Q4 2,1

      Q5 4,3

      Q6 B

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Q1. Yes.

      Q2. Needs to be available on Server.

      Q3.

      (5)

      (1)

      (3)

      (4)

      (2)

      Q4. (2)

      Q5.

      (5)

      (1)

      Q6. (B)

      Author's profile photo Henry Banks
      Henry Banks

      1. Yes.  but IMO the user should be able to control how the frames/sections (that make up the story) fold over the page-break.

      2. Yes

      3.  2 , 4, 5 , 3,   1

      4. 1

      5.  1, 5

      6.  B

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Q1 : No if snapshot means a static image, or a static vector which only improves screen re-sizing and printing.

      Q2 : Yes, analyst designs infographic, exports to file and distributes to coleagues through mail. Server is only another distribution platform imo.

      Q3 : Only 4, thinking they would be interactive. Just produce one file html with all js, json, html in it. I have seen prototypes of this. and if we do this, it could even be embeddable to ppt by the user, i just googled embed html into ppt and there are many results.

      Q4 : Anything other than 4, because when people say export to ppt and pdf they are expecting some interactivity (like tooltips etc at least), but as i see we are thinking about "images". People can take screenshots already,

      Q5 : 4 and 5,

      Q6 : if we have export to pdf, no need to print of course,

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Q1. Yes, output to PDF and PPT would be very helpful. Another way to accomplish the same objective might be for users to be able to save a story filter set. The use case for us is the following: While we develop standard reporting we do expect that users monitor these reports for deviations from norm and drill down to understand what is causing the deviations. Rather than saving off new stories it would be helpful to just save off a series of filters. The intent is to then step through PPT, PDF or Lumira during a meeting to share the findings and discuss them. For that you don't want to start from scratch (reassign filters, etc.). You want to click through a series of views that you defined doing meeting pre-work.

      Q2. Not sure what problem you'd solve unless there are users that have to embed these graphics in Word documents.

      Q3. How would you rank the following 5 export options in order of highest value to the lowest value?

      (3) PPT ...not clear on how (2) is different

      (5)

      (4)

      (1)

      Q4.(1)

      Q5. (3), (5)

      Q6. B. focus our resources on delivering other highly voted requirements

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sharon,

      Hope I do not missed the time

      Q1. Is it still useful to support exporting story into Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation (PPTX), in a similar manner to PDF, capturing a snapshot of one storyboard into one slide? How would this benefit you?

      [Alex] I think so. This will be an alternative solution if there is no Lumira Server setup and still want to share data.

      Q2. If we could turn images into Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format and automatically export
      to Microsoft document (PPTX or Word), but would only limit the feature to
      Lumira Desktop (Windows) and not from Lumira Server or Lumira Cloud, would it
      still meet your business expectation?\

      [Alex] The situation might be similar as LiveOffice. For Lumira Desktop, we could schedule the refresh by time but need to ensure thelaptop is on and might not be integrated with other data loading. If this could be done in Server side would be great. This will be alternative solution for the company who does not have Lumira Server

      Q3. How would you rank the following 5 export options in order of highest value to the
      lowest value?

      (1) Export
      visualizations used in the story into individual vector file (eg. EMF or SVG)
      and save the collection to a file location (1 visualization = 1 file)

      (2) Export
      visualizations used in the story into individual PNG image (not vector type) on
      each slide of the PowerPoint (1 image per slide)

      (3) Export a storyboard as a snapshot on each slide of the PowerPoint (1 board per slide)

      (4) Export story to HTML

      (5) Export a story to SAP Design Studio and build application and apply further customizations

      [Alex]

      (5)>=(3)>(4)>(2)=(1)

      For (4), I am not sure whether this HTML could merge with mail body directly. Then this will be perfect to provide a function silmilar to braodcasting to send out this kind of HTML

      Q4.Which of the above 5 options do you think we should not invest at all, at least in the foreseeable future (*hint* we have over hundred open Ideas on Idea Place which we would like to work on)?

      [Alex]  (1) or (2). For (4), if this is not supported embedded in email just a link and need to uses ID and password, include 4

      Q5. If you could only get 2 options out of the 5, what will be your recommendations?
      Assume that export to PDF will be supported.

      [Alex] (5), (3)

      Q6. If we could deliver Export to PDF and 1 of the 5 mentioned in Q3, would you recommend that we

      1. A. still consider printing stories directly from Lumira a high priority to deliver within the
        next 12 months
      2. B. focus our resources on delivering other highly voted requirements?

      Any other feedback you would like us to consider? Please let us know. We will take
      the feedback discussed in this forum as well as from others, incorporate into
      our strategy and let you know what we finally decide to do.

      [Alex]
      Export to PDF should be a basic function and Lots of Self-Service reporting tools have supported already

      BW Offline data I think should be in the plan

      Best regards

      Alex yang

      Author's profile photo Sharon Om
      Sharon Om
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Alex,

      You did not miss the timing. Our export to PDF capability is in progress. And I am still working on the next phase of the road map based on all of these inputs. Thank you for your response.

      BW offline, which we will probably use a different name, is also started 😉

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sharon,

      Thanks for your reply on this

      We are very excited to know that BW offline capability is coming

      Best regards

      Alex yang

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Q1. Yes, indeed !

      Q2. No - currently we go ahead with Server deployment only

      Q3.

      3

      4 (if self-contained and with interaction, like a vizpacker in one file, data might be compressed),
      1,

      2,

      5

      Q4. 5

      Q5. 3, 1

      Q6. B

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sharon,

      printing storyboards or exporting storyboards to ppt is absolutely needed by business! Due business is creating storyboards with up to 80 slides, it would be necessary to print or export it with all created slides, not one by one.

      Regards, Helmut

      Author's profile photo Sharon Om
      Sharon Om
      Blog Post Author

      *LABS PREVIEW*

      Can't wait to ship it already!!

      export.PNG

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sharon,

      It really looks cool

      For the first page, this is due to the Infopgraphic size causing there is some empty area?

      BTW, which version this will be released?

      Best regards

      Alex yang

      Author's profile photo Sharon Om
      Sharon Om
      Blog Post Author

      I just zoomed it to show multiple pages. Lumira story allows you to have pages with different sizes, layouts and orientations.  We export them as they are into PDF.

      All plans are subject to change but according to current plan of record we expect this to be your new year present 😉

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Is there an update about export to PPT?

      Thanks in advance

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi All,

      Any updated on export to ppt?

      Thanks