I wanted a report that gave me a registrant's name, address, phone numbers and email. I was told there was no way to create a custom report from scratch; I could only modify reports that were already created. And there were dozens of them with no easy way I could find to see which fields they contained short of opening each one.
So, like I was instructed, I went into the "Registrant Details" report (I believe it was) and deselected what I didn't want and selected what I did, then ran the report and downloaded it. This is the order in which the report put my columns:
Column A: Email Address
Column B: Mobile Phone Number
Column C: Date of Birth
Column D: First Name
Column E: Gender
Column F: Home Address
Column G: Home City
Column H: Home Country
Column I: Home Phone Number
Column J: Last Name
Column K: Middle Name
Column L: Nickname
Column M: Home State/Prov. Code
Column N: Work Phone Number
Column O: Home ZIP/Postal Code
Look how far apart First Name and Last Name are. And how far apart Home City and Home State are. And how many columns the three Phone Numbers are separated by.
Why can't I determine the order in which my information is displayed in my downloaded Excel file? And this is just a small report. When more fields are added, it becomes a bigger and bigger task to rearrange the columns in order to get the document in workable order.
I used RegOnline for several years and they had a much, MUCH better system. When you went to create a report, all your fields appeared in a list on the left and you dragged the ones you wanted to a list on the right. Then you could arrange the fields you selected in any order you wished.
Why not allow users the freedom to create their own custom reports in a similar way? So simple. So elegant. So efficient. So empowering.
#ReportingandInsights------------------------------
Stephen Speer
Ben Speer's Stamps-Baxter School of Music
Nashville
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