OfficeWriter Designer .NET was introduced in version 8.6.0 of OfficeWriter. It is a completely rewritten version of our Excel Designer add-in using more modern technologies than the existing OfficeWriter Designer. The OfficeWriter Designer .NET is written in .NET/C# using VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office). It has no dependence on COM or VBA. The new Designer .NET has better platform support (i.e. 64-bit Office) and is more robust. However, it does not yet support all of the features found in the original Designer. Additional functionality will be added to future releases of the Designer .NET. |
Feature | OfficeWriter Designer .NET | OfficeWriter Designer |
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Office 2007 | Excel 2007 (up through SP3) | Excel and Word 2007 SP2 or SP3 |
Office 2010 | Excel 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit) | Excel and Word 2010 (32-bit only) SP1 |
Office 2013 | Excel 2013 (32-bit and 64-bit) | Excel and Word 2013 (32-bit only) |
System requirements | .NET 4.0 or higher | Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) |
Feature | OfficeWriter Designer .NET | OfficeWriter Designer |
---|---|---|
SSRS 2005 | Not supported | RDLs created in VS 2005 supported. |
SSRS 2008 (R2) | RDLs created in Visual Studio 2008/2010, Report Builder 3.0 | RDLs created in Visual Studio 2008/2010, Report Builder 3.0 |
SSRS 2012 | RDLs created in Visual Studio 2010/2012, Report Builder 3.0 | RDLs created in Visual Studio 2010/2012, Report Builder 3.0 |
Feature | OfficeWriter Designer .NET | OfficeWriter Designer |
---|---|---|
Open a report (server/disk) | Prevents users from opening multiple reports at once | Users can open multiple reports at once which may lead to corrupted reports. |
Save a report (server/disk) | Defaults to XLSX. Remembers last-saved file format. | Defaults to XLS for each save. Does not remember last-saved file format. |
View |
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Import a template | Supported | Supported in Excel and Word |
Report properties | Available in the toolbar | Can only be edited when saving to disk |
Insert data place holders based on data sets | Supports inserting data markers (Excel) | Supports inserting data markers (Excel), merge fields (Word) and defining repeat blocks (Word) |
Native query builder | Not currently supported | Available through MS Query integration |
Feature | OfficeWriter Designer .NET | OfficeWriter Designer |
---|---|---|
Modifying data sets in Visual Studio or Report Builder | Safe actions:
| Safe actions:
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Modifying fields in queries in Visual Studio or Report Builder | Safe actions:
| Safe actions:
|
Feature | OfficeWriter Designer .NET | OfficeWriter Designer |
---|---|---|
Shared data sources |
| Correctly handles shared data sources with absolute and relative paths stored in the RDL |
Report Models | Not currently supported | Supported |
Formulas/expressions defined in Visual Studio or Report Builder | Not currently supported | Not currently supported. * |
SHAREPOINT |
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Open from a report library | Not currently supported | SharePoint 2007 supported |
Save to a report library | Not currently supported | SharePoint 2007 supported |
OfficeWriter Designer Feature | OfficeWriter Designer .NET Support |
---|---|
RDLs with OfficeWriter Reporting Services formulas | Formulas will be preserved. Reports that have formula data markers will still populate the formulas. Formulas are not accessible for adding, removing, or modifying in Designer .NET |
RDLs with Word templates from OfficeWriter Designer | Fully backwards compatible. |
RDLs with Excel templates from OfficeWriter Designer | Fully backwards compatible. |
RDLs created from MS Query integration in the OfficeWriter Designer | Not currently supported. |