16.7.0 Windward Input to Output Formats

Here are the input and output file formats supported by Windward. Some differ based on the version.

Windward Input Formats

  • Word DOCX documents, the basic Microsoft Word document.
  • Excel XLSX documents, the format for Excel spreadsheets for versions 2007 and higher.
  • PowerPoint PPTX documents, Microsoft's professional presentation document.

Windward Input Format Limitations

Here are some limitations to consider when creating Report Templates.

Importing Tables

  • Importing an XLSX Report Template into a DOCX Report Template is not supported.
  • Importing a DOCX Report Template with tables into an XLSX Report Template imports the entire Template into the single cell that contains the Import Tag. The table becomes just text - it is not a table as Excel does not support tables within a cell.
  • Importing an XLSX Report Template into an XLSX Report Template imports the entire table into the single cell that contains the Import Tag. The table becomes just text - it is not a table as Excel does not support tables within a cell.

Importing Excel Pivot Tables

  • Output to PDF is not supported.
  • A pivot table is non-movable and expandable. This means it can’t be placed in a worksheet containing other dynamic contents, e.g. a ForEach Tag loop. So, place pivot tables in separate worksheets.
  • A data source for a pivot table can’t contain more than Z (26) columns.
  • A pivot table can use only by-row-expandable ForEach Tag loops. By-column expansion of a ForEach Tag loop is not supported.

Windward Output Formats

  • Word DOCX documents, the basic Microsoft Word document. (We do not support DOC.)
  • Excel XLSX documents, the format for Excel spreadsheets for versions 2007 and higher. (We do not support XLS.)
  • PowerPoint PPTX documents, Microsoft's professional presentation document. (We do not support PPT.)
  • PDF, or Portable Document Format, allows you to create a formatted document and preserve its layout no matter which program or software was used to create it. This allows you to share your document with a large number of people, because the PDF reader software is free and ubiquitous.
  • HTML web page.  We support a variety of HTML formats, such as with or without CSS.  Note: Outlook does not support CSS in HTML documents very well. (HTML was substantially improved in version 13.)
  • Printer output is where a document is sent directly to your available printer with the inserted data intact.
  • RTF, or Rich Text Format, is compatible with almost all word processors (Word, WordPad, Open Office Writer, Google documents, etc.). It allows you to exchange files between word processors for different operating systems. RTF has been around for a while and so is available for earlier versions of word processors.

Windward Input to Output Formats

With Report Designer, you can go from one supported Report Template (input) format to a different output format. For instance, you can go from a DOCX Report Template to an HTML file.

But this does not hold true in every case. For example, PPTX is not an output option for Word and Excel Report Templates, and PowerPoint Report Templates can only be output to PDF, printer and PPTX formats. Supported outputs will appear as active (i.e. not grayed out) in the output options for a given Report Template.

This table shows you which output formats are available for which input formats, with important notes below the table:


Input: DOCX Input: XLSX Input: PPTX Input: HTML1
Output: PDF
Yes Yes
Yes
Yes1
Output: printer Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes1
Output: HTML Yes2
Yes2
No
Yes1,2
Output: DOCX Yes
No No
Yes1
Output: XLS3 Yes
Yes
No
Yes1
Output: PPTX No No
Yes
Yes1
Output: TXT Yes
Yes
No
Yes1
Output: PS
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Output:
SVG
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Output:
ESP
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Output:
BMP
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Output: PNG
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Output: JPG
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Output: GIF
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Output: TIFF
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

1. HTML input is for simple template use only. Many advanced features will not carry across to other formats in the output. See HTML and CSS Tags and Attributes Supported By Out Tags.

2. HTML output may not display format-specific features exactly as intended.

3. XLS output is limited to basic formatting and does not include charts and images. We recommend using XLSX instead.

Windward Image Outputs

The following functionality was added in version 20.0.0

There are a number of different image output types Windward supports in our Java and .NET Engines. The following table will highlight those image output types as well as the commands that correspond to the output in the two different engines.

Image Type Java Command .NET Command
ESP HtmlImage.RENDER_EPS
ReportImage.FORMAT.EPS
SVG HtmlImage.RENDER_SVG
ReportImage.FORMAT.SVG
BMP HtmlImage.BITMAP_BMP
ReportImage.FORMAT.BMP
GIF HtmlImage.BITMAP_GIF
ReportImage.FORMAT.GIF
JPG HtmlImage.BITMAP_JPG
ReportImage.FORMAT.JPG
PNG HtmlImage.BITMAP_PNG
ReportImage.FORMAT.PNG
TIFF HtmlImage.BITMAP_TIF
ReportImage.FORMAT.TIF

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