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An OfficeWriter Excel template is an Excel workbook that contains data markers. A data marker is a cell value beginning with %%= that specifies a database column to insert in the spreadsheet column containing the marker. OfficeWriter templates are created with the OfficeWriter Designer.
When you save the template, the OfficeWriter Designer encodes it as a custom XML element in a Reporting Services RDL file. To publish a report, you will submit the RDL file to a Reporting Services server where OfficeWriter is installed. The OfficeWriter renderer on the server regenerates the template, and - using data supplied by Reporting Services - replaces the data markers in the document with database values.
The format of a merge field is:
%%=DatabaseQueryName.FieldName
For example, this data marker is a placeholder for values from the "Last Name" field in the data set returned by a query called "Employees":
%%=Employees.LastName
The template shown below contains three data markers.
To add data markers to a worksheet:
- Place your cursor in the cell where you want the data marker.
- Click the Data Markers drop-down on the OfficeWriter toolbar and navigate to a dataset.
- Under the Insert Data Marker section, select a field. To insert all fields, select Insert All.
- Repeat the above steps to add additional data markers.
- Optional: Apply formatting (bold, italic, underline, etc.) to data markers using Excel's Format menu or toolbar.