I love the flexibility of eaXL and make extensive use of it, for model updates, for analysis and for traceability tables for our published architecture documents But in order to provide usable outputs either to colleagues or for pasting into documents I always have to do the same post processing (and document the steps for other administrators):
1. Ungroup all rows
2. Expose and delete rows 1 and 3
3. Expose and delete columns A and B, or A, B and C, depending upon the purpose of the output
4. Change the cell colour and header colour and set borders
5. Change the font (Arial 8pt in most cases for us)
6. Set all cells to wrap text (happily, alignment is already top left)
7. Set freeze panes to top row
8. Filter out and delete rows for unwanted stereotypes
9. Change column names for standard attributes (e.g. name -> System Function, parentName -> Function Grouping)
For the stereotypes, is it possible to allow selection of Stereotypes, rather than just selection of Element Types?
For the standard attributes, is it possible to allow users to specify the column name?
For the rest, I understand that you need to have a consistent output to support the import process and reuse of the eaXL “template”, but I can imagine possible solutions that would help me and a host of other users:
Option 1: populate a second tab for publication
Option 2: offer the option of publication-only. In this case the generation process must first save the “template”, then save the output with a different filename.
For either of these options, a menu of choices could be available, addressing items 1-7 above, with default settings and options where appropriate.
Best regards,
Heather
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