Alteryx Designer: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 9. Reporting

The Reporting tools in Alteryx allow you to build fully automated, pixel-perfect reports and output in formats like PDF, HTML, Excel, Word, and even PowerPoint. You can add charts and maps, as well as tables of data and text, and then order these snippets exactly how you want them. Some examples of the reports and outputs you could build include:

• An HTML page that changes frequently based on data

• A weekly or monthly PowerPoint presentation

• A marketing brochure that is delivered via PDF or Word

• A product catalog with images and text

The number of ways to make different types of reports can be overwhelming. In this chapter, I will walk you through the Reporting tools first so you understand which tool does what. I will cover the element tools that create the snippets you will put into a report, then I will use the various layout tools to organize those snippets. I’ll also show you how to output those reports into the various formats. Lastly, I’ll walk through an example so that you can see all the pieces working together. Let’s get started!

The Reporting tool palette (see Figure 9-1) includes all the Reporting tools that you will need to build everything from simple to highly complex and formatted reports.

Figure 9-1. The Reporting tool palette

I like to think of the Reporting tools as falling into roughly three categories—elements, layout, and output—which ...