Cognos Reporting Environment. Running Cognos Reports. Ann Campbell, Heather Spence Cognos Version: 8.4 Last Revision Date: 23 March 2011 Revised by

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1 Cognos Reporting Environment Running Cognos Reports Prepared by: Ann Campbell, Heather Spence Cognos Version: 8.4 Last Revision Date: 23 March 2011 Revised by Heather Spence Revision Reason: Upgrade from 8.3 to 8.4 Create Date: 26 November

2 Contents 1. Introduction to Cognos Running Student Related Reports Supplying Values for Report Prompts Converting Report Output into PDF or Excel Printing Report Output

3 1. Introduction to Cognos Cognos8 is a web based end user reporting tool and as such does not require any software to be installed on the user PC. The environment is accessed through any web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. Our current environment is Cognos 8.4 which is compatible with Internet Explorer 7 or 8. This document is intended to provide examples of how to select a report to run, supply values at the prompts, print the output or convert the output into PDF format. 2. Running Student Related Reports Enter the following URL to open the application: It is advisable to Bookmark this web page as a Favourite. Log in using your Windows password, i.e. the password you use to first log on to your computer in the morning. Please remember, if you update this password, you will need to use the updated password here. You will be directed to your Cognos8 homepage. 3

4 For example, click on the Registrations folder. This folder holds numerous subfolders, containing all Registry related reports. In the example below however, there are only 3 reports. Click on the report you wish to run, in this example Program Year List was selected. The Prompt page will automatically appear. (You may need to disable any popup blockers on your machine). 4

5 3. Supplying Values for Report Prompts Supply values for each prompt by typing in values or selecting from a list provided. It is worth noting that users may select non-adjacent values in a list by pressing the CTRL key and clicking. If a prompt is preceded with an asterisk, this means that a value is mandatory Mandatory prompt Finish Click Finish to run the report. 5

6 Prompt again Click here to scroll up and down The output of the report is initially in HTML format and simply displayed in the browser window To scroll through the report data, use the page up/page down links at the bottom of the screen. Generally output is converted into PDF format for printing and distribution, as detailed in the next section. To run the report again, with different prompt values, click the prompt icon. 4. Converting Report Output into PDF or Excel It is possible to view and print the report in numerous other formats such as PDF, Excel etc. This is achieved by using the icon in the top right hand corner of the screen To convert the output into PDF, click the conversion icon (looks like a washing machine!) as illustrated above and select the View in PDF Format option. Depending on the size and format of the output the conversion to PDF may take a few moments. Once the PDF is displayed users may print as normal as detailed in the next section. To export the report to Excel, click the conversion icon as illustrated above and select the View in Excel Options. In order to override popup blockers and other security settings, hold down the Ctrl key before 6

7 you click view in Excel. Remember to hold the Ctrl key down until Excel has actually opened on your screen. Select the Version of excel you wish to run. Excel 2007 Format is recommended and should be possible to run from all machines (Even if you have Excel 2003 on your machine). Remember at this stage that you should be holding down the Ctrl key Select Open or Save, depending on whether you wish to save the file on your computer or to view it in Excel. If Open is selected, Excel should appear with a formatted version of the report. This can now be used for mail merge or for other purposes. At this point, release the Ctrl Key. 7

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9 5. Printing Report Output In order to print a report, users are advised to convert the output into the desired format, for example a PDF file as covered in the previous section. Once the report output has been generated, in PDF for example, Adobe will open another window and the output will be displayed in PDF. Print Click on the print icon. The output will be printed to your default printer. Please note: If you are printing labels and you are not using a networked printer, you may need to turn off the printer margins in order to fit the labels to the standard label size. To do this, click the print icon. Then set the Printable Area setting to None 9

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