LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office 1.1.2 Readme

January 2007


This file contains important last-minute information about the LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office 1.1.2, including installation issues.


Refer to the National Instruments Web site for the latest information about the Report Generation Toolkit. Refer to the LabVIEW Help and the LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office User Guide for more information about using the Report Generation Toolkit.


System Requirements
Installation
Upgrade Issues
Known Issues

System Requirements

The computer you are using must meet the following minimum system requirements to run the Report Generation Toolkit:


  • LabVIEW 7.0 or later
  • Microsoft Office 2000, XP, 2003, or 2007
  • Windows Vista/XP/2000
  • 64 MB of RAM
  • 40 MB of hard drive space

Installation

Note:  Some virus detection programs interfere with the installer. Disable any automatic virus detection programs before you install. After installation, check your computer for viruses and enable any virus detection programs you disabled.


Complete the following steps to install the LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office 1.1.2.


  1. Confirm that LabVIEW 7.0 or later is installed on the computer.
  2. Uninstall any previous versions of the Report Generation Toolkit.
  3. Log on as an administrator or as a user with administrator privileges.
  4. Insert the LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office 1.1.2 installation CD and follow the instructions that appear on the screen.

Note:  To modify the current installation or to uninstall the toolkit, select National Instruments Software in the Add or Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. When you modify the installation, a list of National Instruments software appears. Select a product in the list to add or remove individual components or to uninstall the product. You also can remove multiple products by pressing the <Shift> or <Ctrl> key and clicking the Remove button to remove all the products you selected.


The Report Generation Toolkit installer updates several LabVIEW files. The installer backs up each file the Report Generation Toolkit replaces in case you need to restore the files after you uninstall the toolkit. When you uninstall the toolkit, LabVIEW returns to its original configuration.


If you reinstall or upgrade LabVIEW after you install the Report Generation Toolkit, LabVIEW overwrites the files described above and the toolkit loses its functionality. To avoid this issue, always uninstall the toolkit before you reinstall or upgrade LabVIEW, then reinstall the Report Generation Toolkit. This also includes upgrading from LabVIEW 8.2 to LabVIEW 8.2.1.


Upgrade Issues

If you previously created VIs that use the built-in Report Generation VIs in LabVIEW Professional, Full, or Base packages or VIs from a previous version of the Report Generation Toolkit, installing the Report Generation Toolkit 1.1.2 might break the VIs you created. If the VIs you created contain any of the following VIs, edit them so they are compatible with the Report Generation Toolkit 1.1.2.


  • Append Front Panel Image to Report VI—The Image Format input of the LabVIEW 6.1 version of this VI is a different enumerated type than the current toolkit version. Right-click the input and select Create»Control or Create»Constant from the shortcut menu to create a compatible control or constant.
  • Append Table to Report VI—The connector pane position of the show grid lines input changed from the Report Generation Toolkit 1.0.1 version of the VI. Reconnect the original wire to the new input location.
  • Get Report Settings VI—The cluster order of the font settings input changed from the Report Generation Toolkit 1.0.1 version of the VI. Right-click the output and select Create»Indicator from the shortcut menu to create a compatible indicator.
  • Report Express VI—If a VI includes the LabVIEW built-in version of the Report Express VI on the block diagram, the VI breaks after you install the Report Generation Toolkit 1.1.2. Double-click the Report Express VI to launch its configuration dialog box, then click the OK button. Reconnect all wires to the Report Express VI.
  • SubVIs that require relinking—You might need to relink the following subVIs after installation because the connector panes changed in the Report Generation Toolkit 1.1.2. Right-click the VIs and select Relink to SubVI.
    • New Report
    • Dispose Report
    • Append Front Panel Image to Report
    • Append Hypertext Link Anchor to Report
    • Append File to Report
    • Append Horizontal Line to Report
    • Set Report Font

Known Issues

  • (LabVIEW 8.x) The MS Office Report Express VI does not support signed or unsigned 64-bit integers.
  • (Office 2007) Several default settings in Microsoft Office 2007 differ slightly from previous versions. Reports you generate using Office 2007 might look different than reports you generate from other versions of Office because font sizes, cell sizes, and so on, differ.
  • (Excel 2007) If you save an Excel file with a .xls extension with the Report Generation Toolkit, you might receive the following dialog box message when you open the file in Excel 2007:

    The file you are trying to open, 'filename.xls', is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file. Do you want to open the file now?

    Click the Yes button to open the file. You can save the file with a .xlsx extension instead of a .xls extension to avoid receiving this dialog box.
  • Easy Print VI Panel or Documentation VI—The Default value of the measurement system parameter of the margins parameter of the layout options parameter sets the margin in inches, not in the measurement system configured on the computer as documented in the LabVIEW Help.

© 2007 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.