Exporting worksheet data

If a user needs to export the records in a worksheet to a spreadsheet this can be done via the ‘Export’ button in the Worksheet menu, by choosing the ‘Spreadsheet’ option from the drop-down menu. This will open the ‘Export as spreadsheet’ dialog box. 

Spreadsheet export options 

Once export options have been configured, clicking ‘Export’ will generate a spreadsheet that will be downloaded immediately. The generated export is not saved on the Platform. 

In addition to exporting worksheet records to a spreadsheet, it is also possible to export records to a Word document. Exporting to Word is accessed by clicking ‘Word document (docx)’ option in under the ‘Export button’ drop-down menu. 

There are no configuration options when exporting Worksheet records as .docx files. Only visible records are exported. If certain Worksheet fields are hidden from view or if some records have been filtered out, these will not be included in the export. The exception to this is if records are exported ‘as details’ - see further info about this below. 

After clicking the option to export, the resulting file is immediately generated and downloaded onto the user's local computer. 

There are three different options when exporting to Word. 

Export as single table 

Exporting as a single table generates a document with one table containing all worksheet records. The worksheet field names are included in a header row and each subsequent record in the worksheet becomes a row in the table. If any fields in a record do not have data, these will be left blank. 

Export as multi table 

Exporting records as multiple tables generates a document with one table for each record in the worksheet. In the case of multiple tables, each table has two columns: the field titles on the left and the corresponding data for each record on the right. 

Export as details 

Exporting records as details requires a card to have been configured for the worksheet. Once one or more cards exist, these are listed as available options for export when selecting ‘Export as details’.  

When this option is selected, the generated document contains multiple tables, each representing a worksheet record in the layout represented by the selected card. If any of the fields included in the card are hidden from view when generating the export, the card configuration will override the worksheet view and the field will still be included in the export. 

In addition to data in worksheet records, it is possible to export the documents that have been linked to a record directly from the worksheet. This saves the need to locate the relevant documents on the documents page. 

The worksheet must be configured with fields of either type ‘Document’, ‘Multiple documents’ or ‘Text in a document’ for the option to export documents directly to be available. If there are more than one field of these types in the worksheet, each will be available to select in the ‘Export’ - ‘Documents’ drop down menu. Only one field can be selected for each export operation. It is not possible to export documents in multiple fields as part of the same export. 

Once the relevant field has been selected, the export dialog will open. Exporting documents from a worksheet functions the same way as exporting from the documents page. For further information about the export dialog options, please refer to the documentation on document exporting. 

Filtering documents for export 

If only some documents should be exported, a filter needs to be created and activated before the export is instigated. By default, all visible worksheet records are included in an export. 

Please note that selecting the required records and then clicking ‘Export’ will not result in only the selected documents being included. Unselected but visible records will still be included in the export. 

Ordering documents for export 

If documents are exported as a single pdf, the order of the documents will correspond to the order of the worksheet records, with the first document in the export corresponding to the first record (numbered ‘1’) in the worksheet. 

If a specific document order is required in the export, this needs to be established either by sorting on a specific column or by using the ‘Rank’ field type before the export is instigated. 

In addition to exporting worksheet records as data, it is also possible to export just the worksheet configuration. 'Worksheet configuration’ refers to all settings and fields that can be specified in the worksheet ‘Edit’ dialog. This means all worksheet properties, the field types specified, along with any dependencies, forms, cards and view mappings. No data added to the relevant worksheet will be included in the export. 

The option to export a worksheet structure is useful if there is a need to repeat a complex worksheet configuration across several projects. This essentially allows the worksheet structure to function as a template for other worksheets. By exporting the structure from one project and importing it into another, an ‘empty’ worksheet containing no data can be copied across multiple projects. 

The option to export the worksheet structure is accessed from the ‘Export’ button and clicking ‘Export worksheet structure’ in the drop-down menu. This will immediately download a .json file to the user's computer, with no further configuration options. 

The .json file can be uploaded to other Opus 2 projects via the ‘+New worksheet from saved structure’ option at the bottom of the ‘Worksheets’ drop-down menu. 

Please note that the option to create new worksheets are dependent on license agreements and so may not be available to all users. 

If a worksheet structure is imported into the same project that the structure was exported from, there will initially be two duplicate worksheets. This is not recommended as best practice. If there is a need to distinguish between different types of similar data, this can usually be better achieved through the creation of choice, label or tag fields that can be used to create various saved filter configurations.  

If two identical worksheet structures are still required in the same project, best practice is to immediately rename the new worksheet to avoid confusion.