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File collect

Using the "file collect" feature, you can combine multiple Microsoft Excel spreadsheets into a single file, and then deliver the file.

For example, you might have several reports that are set up to use multipass file processing to save snapshot copies to various folders. After running all of those reports, you could use file collect to combine the various snapshot copies into a single "report package." You can process several different packages at once and deliver them to different recipients—for example, you could use a file filter to collect all of the "North" reports into one package, and all of the "West" reports into another package, and send them to the appropriate department managers.

File collect allows you to:

• Combine multiple Excel spreadsheets into one output file, and then save that file to a designated file location and/or deliver it via email to one or more recipients.
• Define multiple file collect "packages" that can be processed at the same time, all with differing settings.
• Define "common files" to be automatically added to each package, such as a cover page, or a supporting document, or a consolidated top-level report.
• Automatically refresh file lists based on source folder locations, so that the list of files to collect can be determined dynamically. Source files can also be "hard-coded" as needed.

File collect is a special feature of file processing. Unlike other file processing types, where you are refreshing sheets in the file with data and then performing actions on those sheets, file collect uses special configuration sheets to define the settings of the collect operation. Although the file can contain other sheets, they are essentially ignored for the file collect operation (unless the configuration sheets reference those sheets to determine file collect settings). In most cases, the only purpose of the file is to contain the file collect configuration settings.

When you set up file processing for file collect, you specify the processing type and the sheets to process. All other file processing settings, including multipass, do not apply to file collect. All file collect settings are managed within the special File Collect Configuration sheets.