Listware for Excel:Best Practices

← Listware for Excel

Upgrade to latest .NET

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NET Framework 4 is required to run Listware. If it is not installed the user is required to install it. Upgrade to the latest "FULL" version of .NET before installing the Excel Plug-ins

Saving Output Results

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As with most applications, it is good practice to periodically save your work. If you have opened a different file type, save as xls or xlsx to be able to save the background colors of the cells and the comments on the fields that the Personator web service appends to your Listware for Excel spreadsheet. Save the active sheet between multiple runs. In the event the service ends unexpectedly, previously appended Results will not be lost.

Optimizing Speed

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• For faster processing speed, turn off the PlugIn Options which add formatting to the output cells. While the formatting makes post-processing analyzing easier and visually more attractive, writing the formatting to the excel output sheet can slow down the process significantly. For larger runs on older machines, using these options can also use memory resources than can be allocated resulting in a crash.
• Don't perform unnecessary actions. Not only will unnecessary options consume more credits, but operations like verify and append, for example, check a much larger amount of our source data, therefore consume more resources.
• Don't process your entire sheet. Its easier to select an entire sheet, but if only a specific range of the active table is missing data or needs updating, just specify that range.

Crashing on very large processing runs.

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See Optimizing Speed (above). The same suggestions ensure a more stable process.

The old adage that newer is better, performance-wise applies here...

• Use 64-bit Windows instead of 32-bit.
• Using a newer version of Windows (ie, Windows 7 versus XP).
• Use 64-bit Office instead of 32-bit.
• Use a newer versions of Excel (2010 and up).

Printing Reports

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• Check Print Preview and set your margins to ensure optimal print layout.
• By selecting only the Reporting Options you need, your Output will have a more concise ready to print report that requires no editing in Excel.

Express Entry Mode

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When you use Express Entry (Data Entry Mode), Listware will prompt you to configure optimal column settings. Once you place the focus back on the sheet (to edit for example), you have overridden the configuration, and therefore bottom of sheet insertion. We recommend once you open Express Entry, you stay in that mode until data entry is complete, and do not jump back and forth from excel edit mode.