Embed images and shapes in documents that you generate by using ER

You can use the Electronic reporting (ER) tool to design reports that you can run to generate required electronic documents. Use Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word documents to specify the layout of a report. The ER Operations designer lets you attach the Excel or Word document as a template for the report. The named elements in the attached template are associated with the format elements of the ER report. Format elements of the report are bound to data sources. These elements specify the data that will be entered, at runtime, in the documents that are generated.

This new functionality goes beyond existing ER capabilities for creating documents in Microsoft Office formats. For more information, see the following task guides. You can find these task guides under the 7.5.4.3 Acquire/Develop IT service/solution components (10677) business process.

• ER Design a configuration for generating reports in OPENXML format
• ER Design a configuration for generating reports in Microsoft WORD format

Embed an image in an Excel document

Embed an image in an Excel worksheet

First, add a placeholder for the image in an Excel document. Open an Excel workbook, and add a picture as a placeholder for the image that you add later. Then use the ER tool to add a new ER format configuration to include the report that you're designing. Attach the Excel workbook as a template for the format of the report, and then import the content of the workbook into the ER format. The format definition is created automatically. The image placeholder that you added is included in the ER format definition as a CELL element.

Next, bind the CELL element of the ER format to the field from the format's data source that provides the picture's data in binary format at runtime. When an ER data model is used as a format's data source, the data type of the field must be Container. Currently, an ER data model field that has the Container data type can be bound to several types of data sources that return images in binary format. You can access a field in a data table and a file that is attached to the data table's record by using the Document management framework.

Embed images in the header and footer of an Excel worksheet

Use the Excel workbook document as a template to specify the layout of a report. The workbook can contain multiple worksheets, each of which can be designed to have a header and a footer. Excel supports up to three images in the header and footer of every worksheet. The images can be aligned to the left, right, or center.

In Finance release 10.0.21, you can manage the header and footer images generated by an ER solution that has an Excel template.

If you want a default picture to appear in the header or footer of a generated document, add an image to the header or footer of a worksheet of an ER template. To access this image in your ER format, add the Picture component under the Header or Footer component of the format. Configure the alignment of the Picture component as appropriate.

You can also use the Picture component to put an image into the header or footer of a generated document at runtime, even if the template contains no default image. To specify the media content that you want to put into the header or footer of a generated document as either a new image or a replacement for a default image, bind the Picture component to a data source of the Container type that represents an image in binary format.

Every Header or Footer component can hold one Picture component for each supported alignment: Left, Center, and Right.

The Scale the height property of the Picture component lets you use the configured binding to control the size of an image:

• Select Original to keep the initial size of the image.

• Select Relative to scale the height of the image in proportion to the height of the header or footer that holds that image.

  • In this case, define the height of the image as a percentage of the parent header or footer.
  • If the scaling value exceeds 100 percent, the image might overlap the data area of the corresponding worksheet.
  • If the scaling changes the height of the image, the width also changes to maintain the image's original aspect ratio.

• Select Absolute to resize the image according to the height and width values (in pixels) provided at design time.

  • If the specified height exceeds the height of the parent header or footer, the image might overlap the data area of the corresponding worksheet.

You can also use the Enabled property of the Picture component to control the visibility of an image that you put into a generated document by using this component.

To learn more about this functionality, see Design an ER format to generate a report in Excel format with embedded images in page headers or footers.

Embed a shape in an Excel document

First, add a placeholder for the shape in an Excel document. Open an Excel workbook, and select Shape, Text box, or WordArt as a placeholder for the shape. Then use the ER tool to add a new ER format configuration to include the report that you're designing. Attach the Excel workbook as a template for the format of the report, and then import the content of the workbook into the ER format. The format definition is created automatically. The shape placeholder that you added is included in the ER format definition as a CELL element that refers to the named Excel shape element.

Next, bind the CELL element in the ER format to the field from the format's data source that provides the data at runtime. You can convert this data to a text string. When the CELL element in the ER format refers to a shape element in the Excel template that supports text, the text provided through this binding at runtime appears in a shape in the generated document.

Embed an image in a Word document

First, configure the Word document's layout. Use the Picture Content control to create a placeholder for the embedded image. To access this control, you must first make the Developer tab visible on the Word Ribbon.

Next, delete the Excel template from the ER format, and attach the Word template document. Update the reference to the template, and save your changes. The structure of the current ER format is saved to the Word template as a new custom XML part that is named Report.

Next, save the Word template for the current ER format to your local computer. Open the template, and open the XML Mapping pane. Find the custom XML part that is named Report, and then point to the CELL element in the ER report that is bound to a data source that returns an image in binary format. Map this XML part's item to the selected Picture Content control, and save your changes.

Finally, delete the Word template from the ER format, and attach the Word document that includes the mapped custom XML parts. Update the format reference to the template, and save the changes that you made to this ER format.

More information

To learn more about this feature, play the set of task guides, ER Make reports in MS Office formats with embedded images. These task guides show how you can embed the images of a company logo and an authorized person's signature in the payment checks that the ER tool generates in Excel and Word documents.

The following table lists the files that you need to complete the ER Make reports in MS Office formats with embedded images task guides. Download and save the files to your local computer.

The following graphic provides an example of the test printout for a payment check that is generated from the Excel template.