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Orange polygon containing piece of paper with a pen writing lines. Render Tool

One Tool Example

Render has a One Tool Example. Go to Sample Workflows to learn how to access this and many other examples directly in Alteryx Designer.

Use Render to transform report snippets into presentation-quality reports in a variety of formats. Output to Microsoft Office format is only supported for Office 2007 and above.

Most reports require a Render tool to publish the report. The Allocate Report tool can publish content without a Render tool.

Configure the Tool

Follow these steps to configure the tool.

Render Configuration

  • Output Mode: Select the output file format. Choose from the supported temporary file types or Choose a Specific Output File.

    Note

    When the Output Mode is set to Temporary PNG Image or the Output File type is a .png, the PNG Options area displays.

  • Output File: If setting a specific output, enter the path to the file's location or browse to it. Supported output file types include...

    • HTML Files (*.html)

    • Composer Files (*.pcxml)

    • PDF Document (*.pdf): PDF output is limited to 8,191 pages.

      Important

      If you generate a large number of PDF files, you might experience degraded performance. We recommend a record limit of 500 per PDF output. For large PDF files, we recommend a smaller record limit.

    • RTF Document (*.rtf)

    • Word Document (*.docx)

    • Excel Document (*.xlsx)

    • MHTML Files (*.mht)

    • PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)

    • PNG Image (*.png): PNG output is limited to a size of 10,000x10,000 pixels or 100M pixels.

    • Zip File (*.zip): The zip file contains a *.html file and a folder with all of the *.html file dependencies such as images.

  • Support Right-to-Left Languages in PDF: If you selected PDF as your output file, select this option if your document contains right-to-left (RTL) languages. With this option selected, you can generate PDFs that contain both RTL and non-RTL languages. However, if your document doesn't contain RTL languages, we recommend that you leave this setting unchecked.

  • Group Data Into Separate Reports: This allows you to group data into separate reports. This option is only available when using Output Mode: Choose a Specific Output File.

    • Field to Group On: Select a column to group data by. This creates a separate report for each group.

    • Modify Filename By:

      • Appending Group to Filename: Appends the specified Group value to the end of the filename.

      • Prepending Group To Filename: Prepends the specified Group value to the beginning of the filename.

      • Replacing Filename With Group: Changes the filename to the value of the selected Group.

      • Replacing Entire Path With Group: Changes the entire path to the value of the selected Group.

Report Data

  • Data Field: Specify which reporting piece to render. If all pieces have been put into a layout, there is only one field to choose from.

  • Separator: Specify one of several separator options for how the report should be rendered.

    • No Spacing Between Records: Puts no space between records.

    • Insert Whitespace Between Records: Insert a white space between records.

    • Insert Line Between Records: Insert a horizontal or vertical line between records.

    • Insert Section Breaks Between Records: Section breaks can vary depending on the report format.

      • PDF, DOC, DOCX, and RTF: Section break equals a new page.

      • XLS and XLSX: Section break equals a new sheet within a workbook.

      • HTML and PCXML: Section break does not provide a break at all.

  • Use static chart: Specify if the output should include a static or interactive chart. This option is only available when you use Output Mode: Temporary HTML File or Temporary Composer File

  • Header: Specify if one of the edited text tools should be used as a header on every page, with the exception of the first page of the report.

  • Footer: Specify if one of the edited text tools should be used as a footer on every page, with the exception of the first page of the report.

    • Header/Footer edge distance (points): Specify the distance from the edge of the paper (in points) to display the Header and Footer. This setting ensures the Header and Footer information is placed inside the printable area of the document. This specification is dependent on the output format and printer settings unique to your configuration.

    • Show header and footer on first page: Check the check box to specify if the header and footer are desired on the first page of the report.

PNG Options

Note

When the OutputMode is set to Temporary PNG Image or the Output File type is a .png, the PNG Options area displays.

Resolution: Specify image resolution.

  • Lower resolution creates a smaller file and is best for viewing on a monitor.

  • Higher resolution creates a larger file with much better print quality.

If Content Too Large: Specify what Alteryx should allow in the event the content of the report exceeds the dimensions of the paper size.

  • Warn with the Following Behavior

  • Error if the Content is Too Large

  • Allow with the Following Behavior

Behavior if Too Large: Based on the specification set above, specify what should be done with content when it exceeds the paper size.

  • Shrink Content to Fit Paper Height

  • Truncate Content to Fit Paper Height

  • Grow Paper Height to Fit Content

Background: Set the transparency of the background of the rendered image.

Transparent: When checked, anything that renders in the specified color will be set to transparent.

Report Style

Paper Size: Select a paper size from one of the pre-configured options or select Custom Size to set the Size (in.).

Size (in.): Expected Behavior

If the Default Distance Units setting is set to kilometers, this field is calculated in centimeters. Go to Localization for details.

Orientation: Select Portrait or Landscape.

Margins (in.): Margins are set in inches. Select the size of the margin in the four boxes for left, top, right, and bottom margins.

Margins (in.): Expected Behavior

If the Default Distance Units setting is set to kilometers, this field is calculated in millimeters. Go to Localization for details.

Slide Size: Available only for PowerPoint Output Mode. Select your PowerPoint slide size:

  • Standard (4:3): Default

  • Widescreen (16:9)

Edit Default Styles: Select to open the StyleEditor window. Customize the available fields to set the TextStyle for this entire report. Go to Render Styles for more information.

When you access this control from a Render tool, the style editor does not overwrite styles that have been specifically set by the user in a Report Text tool.

  • Font: Specify a font from the dropdown menu. The dropdown menu contains fonts that are local to the machine.

  • Size: Specify a size for the font.

  • Justification: Specify horizontal or vertical alignment for the text.

  • TextColor: Specify the color for the text

  • BackgroundColor: Specify a background color for the text.

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