With PADS you can show data that is directly taken from your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in your own required format. You can also use the data of your Excel spreadsheet as input for the chart element of PADS to graphically represent your information.
To connect PADS to your Microsoft Excel file you have to set up a database connection through ODBC or OLEDB in PADS Designer.
Database connection with Excel through ODBC:
- Select from the Edit menu Data providers.
- Select Add… to create a new Data provider.
- Click Next on the welcome page of the data provider wizard.
- Choose a name for the Provider and click Next.
- Choose as provider type Generic ODBC and click Next.
- Fill in the following text as Data link:
Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)}; DriverId=790;Dbq=C:\Temp\Book.xls;DefaultDir=c:\Temp(NOTE: Instead of C:\Temp\Book.xls fill in your own file name)
- Click Next.
- Choose as data source Table, type [Sheet1$] as name of the table and click Next.
- Finish the wizard.
Database connection with Excel through OLEDB:
- Select from the Edit menu Data providers.
- Select Add… to create a new Data provider.
- Click Next on the welcome page of the data provider wizard.
- Choose a name for the Provider and click Next.
- Choose for OLEDB as provider type Generic and click Next.
- Fill in the following text as Data link:
- Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Temp\Book.xls;Extended Properties="Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1"
(NOTE: Instead of C:\Temp\Book.xls fill in your own file name. If the first row in your spreadsheet also contains data you have to type in HDR=No)
- Click Next.
- Choose as data source Table, select the required sheet and click Next.
- Finish the wizard.
Next you can use the database connection to Excel in page elements of your presentation.
When using a database connection to Excel you have to be aware that with Excel there can be file locking. As soon as a user opens an Excel file with the Microsoft Excel application it is exclusively locked by this user. As long as this file is in use, other users including PADS don’t have access to the same file. Therefore we advise to work with a copy of your Excel file for PADS, so that there can be no file locking.
To make sure that PADS Viewer can easily connect to the Microsoft Excel file you can choose to use the PADS Data Server or you can have the Excel file synchronized automatically to the PADS Viewer PC together with other content files.
