Creating a Smart Report which includes automatic text

This worksheet is the first of a series on how to use Smart Reports. Smart Reports can be re-run using the latest data to produce an up-to-date report. You can easily re-run reports, and know that once you have set up the report the way you like it, it will be produced like that every time you run it, with no chance of errors creeping in through copying or cut and paste.

This worksheet describes how to use data from analyses in the report text. It also shows you how to use ordered tables so you can headline important points. For example, you can automatically include the aspects your customers are least satisfied with.

The worksheet assumes:

• you are familiar with Snap
• you have created reports before
• you have a copy of the sample course evaluation survey which is distributed with Snap 11 (a copy of the survey is available for download here)
• you have a pdf printer driver available.

Background

Reports are built up using instructions.

Instructions allow you to put text, graphics and analyses in a report. When the report is run, Snap or Snap WebHost will insert the current response data into the analyses.

You can insert references in your instructions. These references mean that Snap will replace the reference with data (similar to a mail merge in MS Word). For example, use the reference {cases} to insert the current number of responses in your report. E.g.,

“{cases} people have completed our survey”

In Snap 11 you can insert table cell references. If you create a table, you can use references to the row labels, column labels and the table cells in the report text, notes on analyses or even in another table.

This means that you can use whatever data is in the table in your report, and it will automatically pick up the latest data. You do not need to copy and paste.

How references work

You can reference the data you want to insert by row and column number, or by the statistics number.

For example, the table (AN21) shown below has row and column data, and two statistics.

You need to know which row, column, statistic or label you wish to reference.

The example shows the instructions needed to insert data from the table. The reference is made up of the name of the analysis you wish to reference followed by a space, then a code to identify the cell to use.

The code is made up of letters representing row (R), column (C), statistic (S) or label, and numbers identifying which item you want.

You can find out what the code for a given cell is by putting the cursor on it or clicking it. The cell reference information will be displayed in the status bar.

You can also find the cell reference details by double-clicking the cell and checking the information in the Override Analysis Value dialog.

When the report is run, it will use the current data, for example

In Snap 11, you can order the table columns from highest to lowest. This means that you can automatically place the highest and lowest values in your report without needing to edit them. For example, this shows a ranked table.

Using cell references to column 1 label and column 1 row 1, etc. you can insert the ranked values into a report without needing to know what they are.

Summary of steps

This worksheet explains how to create a simple report showing satisfaction rankings.

Step 1: Deciding what goes into your report
Step 2: Creating the instructions
Step 3: Testing your report
Step 4: Putting in the best and worst values

Step 1: Deciding what goes into your report

When you create a Smart Report, it is very important to plan your report, as if all goes well, you can use the same report for years. The simple report used in this worksheet will only include:

• a title
• a sentence giving the number of people totally satisfied with course content (from the table AN4)
• a sentence giving the topic that most needs improvement (using ordered gap analysis)
• the gap analysis chart AN15

Step 2: Creating the instructions

The report will contain a title, an information line and an analysis.

Adding the title

1. Click on the Snap toolbar to open the reports window. You will see the two default reports.
   
2. Click   to create a new report. By default this will have a Tailor Analysis instruction in and nothing else.
3. Click   on the report dialog and select Information from the drop-down menu to add a new Information instruction.
4. Enter the title for your report in the text pane. Leave the Title field blank (this is the title of the Instruction). Style your title text by selecting text and using the format buttons.

   

5. Click [OK] to save the instruction.

Adding the satisfaction reference

1. Click on the Snap toolbar to open the Analyses window.
2. Open the grid table AN4 to check which cells you need. You are going to use the label of the first row, and the value in the fifth column of the first row.

   

3. Close the table and the Analyses windows.
4. Go back to your report and add another Information instruction.
5. Enter the text “The number of people who were totally satisfied with ” and then click the [Insert] button and select Cell Value Field from the drop-down list.

   

6. The New Cell Value Field dialog opens.
7. Enter the reference AN4 R1label in the box and click [OK]. This will put the contents of the label for row 1 of analysis AN4 in your report. When it appears in the report, it will be in curly braces.

Note that the Base row is row 0.

Remember to leave a space after the table name.

1. Add the text ” was: ” and then insert another cell value of AN4 R1C5. Style the text and references.

   

2. Click [OK].

Add the gap analysis table to your report

1. Click   on the report dialog and select Execute from the drop-down menu to add a new Execute instruction.
2. Click on the Execute dialog and select AN15 (the Gap Analysis chart) from the list.

• Click [OK] to add the Execute instruction to the report.

• Click to save the report.

Step 3: Testing your report

It is important to check that your report looks the way you want it and is picking up the correct data.

1. Click the  button on the report window toolbar to run the report.
2. It is often a good idea to check your report on screen rather than sending it to a printer. Click the [Printer] button to check that you are printing to a pdf printer driver rather than a real printer.
3. Click [OK] to close the printer window and then click [OK] to run the report.
4. Your report will look something like this.
   

   Check that the data that appears in the report is from the correct table cell. The chart includes the description, title and notes. You can stop those appearing by changing the Analysis Definition.

5. Click on the Snap toolbar to open the Analyses window.
6. Open the chart AN15.
7. Select the Base/Labels tab.
8. Clear the Reports Include options (the Description, Notes and Title were set in the sample survey).

   

9. Click [OK] to save your changes.
10. Click on the report window bar to and run the report again.
11. Your report will now look something like this.
    

Step 4: Putting in the best and worst values

You can put the highest and lowest values in a report automatically. This step shows you how to put the area needing the most improvement in the summary line by using a sorted table.

Create a sorted table

1. Select AN15 in the Analyses window.
2. Click to make a copy of it.
3. The Analysis Definition window opens. Change the Type to Table and the Order to Mean. This sorts the columns in order by the mean value, so the highest value will always appear in the first column and the lowest in the last.

   

4. Click [OK] to display the table.
5. The lowest value in this table is in the fourth column. You can reference the column label to show which area is most in need of improvement.

   

6. Click to save the table.

Add the area needing most improvement to the report

1. Open your report window.
2. Open the second Information instruction (instruction 3).
3. Add the text “The area most in need of improvement was :”.
4. Insert the cell reference AN19 C4label to insert the label of the fourth column.
   
5. Click [OK] to save your change.
6. Click  to save changes and run the report again.
7. Your report will now look something like this:
   

   If more responses come in, you can simply run the report again, and it will be updated with the new data. If the outcomes are different, that will automatically be carried through to the report.

Conclusion

This worksheet has described how to create a Smart Report that you can run at any time. It explained how to put in table cell references so your report automatically uses the most up-to-date data. It also covered creating a sorted table so you could automatically insert information about the best or worst performing area without needing to know which area that was.

• If you would like to find out more about ranking tables, see the topic: Inserting dynamic data from a ranked table to put highest and lowest values in your report
• If you would like to find out more about report instructions see the topic Types of report instructions
• For an overview of Smart Reporting, see the topic The essence of a Smart Report

If there is a topic you would like a worksheet on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com