ACT! Reporting using Excel with OLEDB

Sounds confusing for the non-technical user, but once set up, this functionality can be extremely helpful. Furthermore, if you need data formatted/reported on using specific calculations or parameters, automating with macros or Visual Basic can prove to be an incredible time-saver.

The first couple steps of getting OLEDB setup is a bit different depending on which version of Excel you are using, so here’s a quick start for 2003 and 2007 versions.

Once set up, you can reuse the connection, so this does not need to be done every time!

• 2003: Data->Import External Data->Import Data
• 2003: Click “New Source” button
• 2007: Data->From Other Sources->From Data Connection Wizard
• following are common steps for both versions
• Choose Other/Advanced, then Next
• choose Provider as “ACT! OLE DB Provider for Reporting“, click Next
• choose a database file (e.g. *.PAD file), fill in User Name and Password if necessary
• Test Connection if you want, then click OK

You will now be presented with all the available tables. Choose one specific for reporting, or uncheck the “Connect to a specific table” option, which will allow you to go back and pick other tables using the same connection. Personally, if you are setting this up for automation, you will most likely have one table in mind. Click Next to choose a File Name under which to save this connection, add a description, and click Finish.

Now, here’s the fun part. You can leave the settings of the “Import Data” pop-up as-is, and it will import all the data from the table into a “table” grid in Excel, or choose to create a Pivot Table or Chart directly from the new connection, or Edit Query, limiting the subset of data imported into Excel. The table is pretty straight-forward, and the Pivot Table/Chart creation is outside the scope of this blog (but is inevitably is the end result - so if you aren’t familiar with them, get familiar!) I want to finish by going over the Edit Query option, as that will help limit the extra/excessive data you do not need in a report.

In 2003, on the Import Data pop-up, click the Edit Query button. In 2007, on the Import Data pop-up, click Properties, and then the Definition tab. Change the Command Type to SQL, and change the Command Text to:

SELECT "Contact Contact", "Contact Company", "Contact ID/Status"
FROM "ACT11Demo"."dbo"."VRP_CONTACT"

This limits the data to just Contact, Company, and ID/Status info. Of course, from there we can create a Pivot Table if needed, perform any analysis functions, or whatever else is desired.

Hope this help you better utilize the power of Excel accessing and reporting on ACT! data…

p.s. In Excel 2003, if you go to Data->Import External Data->Import Data again, your saved connection will be there. In Excel 2007, it’s Data->Existing Connections that will bring up the saved connections.