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Printing comprehensive reports of documents or facts, sorted or categorized by date, author, issue, etc., is as simple as displaying an appropriate MasterFile view and printing it (or selected portions of it) -- either to hardcopy or to PDF using MasterFile's own PDF printer driver. However, often you need to put together an ad-hoc collection of presentation quality reports for your clients or others with specific information. MasterFile's Grab n Go Briefs were designed for these situations and are the simplest and fastest way to make polished Word or PDF reports for your client or other use.
In this issue of Just the Facts we'll explain the rational behind this unique MasterFile innovation, comparing them to CaseMap's report books, and show you some examples of the results.
Here's what we'll cover:
MasterFile Grab n Go Briefs compared to CaseMap Report Books
CaseMap 5 introduced a feature known as Report Books. Essentially Report Books allow you to create a PDF file that contains several reports along with ancillary pages such as a title page, contents page, confidentiality statement, etc. However, developing and defining a Report Book is long and tedious process requiring considerable configuration and much experimentation along with good knowledge of subtle CaseMap idiosyncrasies. You need to configure settings and options in over a dozen dialog windows just to setup the basic report shell and then, for each report to include, there are half a dozen more dialog windows to configure.
The fundamental problem, despite all the configuration dialogs, is that a Report Book at its heart is a collection of traditional database reports that are created all at one go, so every aspect of the entire Report Book must be defined correctly in advance. And since it is created directly as a PDF document, a Report Book can not be edited or refined to add or remove information or to tune the it or correct any small mistakes. In particular, Report Books force you to accurately define, test and save, in advance, very precise search criteria for each report to ensure the correct information is selected -- not more and not less. And since, for a given report only one filter may be used, you need to understand how to create complex multi-condition filters for even simple situations, such as selecting all information related to several issues.
Since the issues related to each case are almost always unique to the case Report Books related to a case's issues have to be custom developed. Similarly, because Report Books are frequently needed to satisfy ad-hoc requests for specific information, detailed search filters must be defined and tested to ensure just the information needed is included in addition to the basic configuration.
The net result is that a lot of development and testing is required for a Report Book that will most likely be unique to a specific case, and then only used a few times.
MasterFile's Grab n Go Briefs were designed from a very different perspective -- we viewed the report collection as a brief that may require editing or drafting of additional text. Consequently Grab n Go Briefs are not a static, monolithic description of every aspect of a report set in CaseMap Report Book fashion. There's no need to properly configure, in advance, dozens of necessary nitty gritty details for each report. Instead Grab n Go Briefs are malleable Microsoft Word documents into which report tables are inserted -- simply grab (select) the information needed and add it to the brief as you go. Once the brief is complete, it can be saved as a Word document and/or MasterFile can create a PDF version of it.
First, you create a blank Grab n Go Brief in Word, then rather than defining a selection filter, sort order, etc. for a report, you simply select the rows in one of MasterFile's views that sorts and categorizes the documents, extracts, facts, players, etc. in the manner you require and a table, formatted to mimic the appearance of the view, is appended to the Grab n Go Brief already open in Word. Simply repeat the process for each report table you wish to add to the brief and within a few minutes you have a completed brief ready to go.
Shown below is the contents page and two report pages from a Grab n Go Brief as it appears in Word. The first report lists all documents, extracts, facts and players linked to the key issue, that "Sky High Elevators knew parts were defective" and the second lists outstanding questions, related to the same issue, that require investigation.
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Since the reports are simply tables in the Word document, they can be cut and pasted into other documents, re-ordered, or even deleted and added again if corrections are required. At any time, a new table can be simply appended to the brief, perhaps later, after the brief has been reviewed. The brief itself can of course be stored in the MasterFile database, becoming part of the case documentation, and therefore be secured, replicated, shared, etc. , so others can contribute to it as well. And finally, because the brief is a Word document and not a static PDF, you're able to edit, revise and add paragraphs, logos, graphics, etc. to the document, as shown above.
Once complete, the brief can be distributed as a Word document or MasterFile can convert it to PDF, and again, the PDF version of the brief can also be stored in MasterFile together with the Word version.
Grab n Go example
Click on the links to see a sample Grab n Go brief in Word or PDF format.
Grab n Go Briefs in 3 easy steps
Creating a brief is a simple 3 step process:
1. Create a blank Grab n Go Brief by clicking on the button below. The brief is created from a Word template provided with MasterFile that you can copy and modify to customize with corporate or other information, logos, etc.
2. After a brief has been created as above, or you have re-opened an existing one in Word, report tables are then added as needed. For each report you want to add, simply:
- select and copy the rows required from the view with the appropriate sorting and categorization, as shown below,
- enter a report title in the report field above, and
- click the "Paste copied selection as new report in current brief", shown above.
3. Save the Word document and/or create a PDF version, complete with bookmarks to each report, with the "Print current brief to PDF" button shown above.
Further information
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