Deleting rows and columns for snapshot copies

Axiom Software has several processes that create a "snapshot copy" of a file. When you take a snapshot copy of a file, the copy is converted into a regular Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that can be viewed outside of Axiom Software.

When designing an Axiom file, you can flag certain rows and columns in the spreadsheet to be deleted in the snapshot copy. This may be useful to delete things like Axiom query artifacts or work rows and columns that are no longer needed in the snapshot copy.

The [DeleteRow] and [DeleteColumn] tags can be used to flag rows and columns to be deleted in the snapshot copy. You can place these tags anywhere in the sheet. There is no control row or control column. Other Axiom processes will ignore these tags.

Any row that contains a [DeleteRow] tag will be deleted in the snapshot copy.
Any column that contains a [DeleteColumn] tag will be deleted in the snapshot copy.

NOTE: Any cell that contains a full tag (text with opening and closing brackets) will be processed. It is not required to match the entire cell contents. For example, a cell with text like x[DeleteRow] will still be processed for deletion. If you want to use a formula to toggle the deletion on or off for a column or row, then the "off" state should resolve to a blank cell (or to text such as NoDelete, but remember that text will now be present in the snapshot).

Axiom Software first gathers the list of rows and columns to be deleted, and then performs the deletions. Therefore, you can place DeleteColumn tags in the same row as a DeleteRow tag, and all flagged deletions will still occur.

If the sheet is configured to freeze panes via the Control Sheet, Axiom Software attempts to reset the frozen panes after the row and column deletions so that it is in the same relative place.

These delete tags apply to any process that creates a snapshot copy, such as:

Snapshot File
E-mail Workbook
File Processing (Save snapshot)

Merged cells and snapshot

Merged cells can cause issues during the snapshot process. If possible, we recommend avoiding use of merged cells.

If you must use merged cells, then any delete tags that impact the merged cells must encompass the entire merged area. For example, if you have merged cells F10 and G10, and you place a [DeleteColumn] tag in column F, then you must also place a [DeleteColumn] tag in column G. Otherwise, the snapshot process will fail because it will not be able to delete only a portion of the merged cells.