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Contributor Fundamentals

This section explains what you see when you log on to Contributor, and provides information that you need to know before you use Contributor for Excel.

The Workflow Screen

The Workflow screen appears when you log on to Contributor. It consists of a tree, a table, and e.List items.

The Tree

The tree on the left side of the screen shows the areas that you are responsible for contributing to (Contributions) and reviewing (Reviews) in a hierarchical form. Depending on your rights, you may see Contributions, Reviews, or both. When you click an item in the tree, a table with the details for the item appears on the right side of the screen.

Each item in the tree has an icon that tells you the current state of the data.

Icon

State and description

 

Not started

No changes have been saved to the data, although the contribution may have been opened for editing.

 

Work in progress

The data was saved but not submitted. You can change and submit data in this state.

 

Locked

The data was submitted and the e.List item was locked. Data can only be viewed in this state. If an e.List item is rejected, its state returns to Work in progress.

 

Incomplete

At least one item belonging to this item is Not started, and at least one other item is in a state of Work in progress, Locked, or Ready. Data in this state was aggregated. The Incomplete state applies only to review e.List items.

 

Ready

All e.List items belonging to the reviewer e.List item are locked. The data is ready to be submitted to the next level in the hierarchy.

 

Currently being edited or annotated

The e.List item was opened for editing or annotating. An edit session is ended by the user closing the grid, or by submitting the e.List item.

 

Out of date

Data in the e.List item needs restructuring to reflect changes in the application, or system data must be imported.

 

Currently being edited or annotated and is out of date.

The Table

The table on the right side of the screen gives information such as the workflow state of the item, the current owner, the reviewer, and when the item last changed.

If a document is attached to an e.List, an icon appears next to that item .

If Contributor for Excel is installed and configured, you can click the Excel button to open the e.List item using Contributor for Excel .

If you are a reviewer of an e.List item, you can reject a submitted item from this screen by clicking the reject button .

e.List Items

An item in the tree or table is known as an e.List item. Typical examples are Sales Division, Marketing Division, Development Division, and Cost Center 123. The e.List item names depend on the design of your application.

You can open multiple e.List items at the same time. If you have a multi-e.List item view, it is indicated by (All) in the first row of the table. Because more data is downloaded to your computer in a multi-e.List item view, it can take longer to open than a standard e.List item view. This option may not be available. Contact your administrator for more information.

The Contributor Workbook

To start working on plan data, you open an e.List item by clicking on its name in the table . When you open an e.List item, you can view or enter data, depending on your rights and the state of the data.

Each cube of the Contributor model opens on a separate worksheet within an Excel Workbook. You can choose whether to insert the Contributor model into a new or an existing Excel Workbook.

Workbooks can be opened only by users who have installed Contributor for Excel. If the workbook is password-protected, users also require the password. You can work with locally saved workbooks . If you want to share workbooks with other users, you must have the same version of Excel installed.

The workbook has two zones: the Contributor zone and the Excel zone.

Before you can open a Contributor session in Excel, Contributor for Excel must be installed on your machine. For more information, see the Cognos 8 Planning - Contributor for Microsoft Excel® Installation Guide.

Incompatible Features

Contributor for Excel does not support the following Excel features:

To avoid possible problems with a Contributor-enabled worksheet or workbook, do not use these features.

The Contributor Zone

Cells within the Contributor zone behave according to Contributor rules . For example, if you type 10K in a cell, the cell remains 10K in an Excel cell but changes to 10,000 in a Contributor cell. If a cell in the Contributor zone expects numbers, you cannot enter text. If you enter text in a number-formatted Contributor cell, the cell reverts to the last number entered.

Data in the Contributor zone always has column and row headings. Initially, data that you can edit in the Contributor zone has a white background, and read-only data has a gray background. If you use a workbook or template created by someone else, the colors may have already been changed. You can change these colors as you work and can retain the changes in saved workbooks.

You can edit data only if it has a workflow state of Not started or Work in progress. The icon indicates the workflow state. If you are not the current owner, the data opens in a read-only view.

To start editing if you are not the current owner:

If you want to check whether the cell is a Contributor cell or an Excel cell, click the row and column headings for the cell. A cell is part of the Contributor zone if it meets the following conditions:

Important: Do not use the Excel Edit, Delete command to change the structure of the Contributor zone. If you do, the following happens:

The Excel Zone

Cells in the Excel zone behave according to Excel rules. You can use the Excel zone to insert graphs to insert calculations that link to or from data in the Contributor zone , and to do any other actions that are allowed by Excel. For more information, see the Microsoft Excel documentation.

You can insert Excel rows or columns between rows and columns in the Contributor zone. These inserted cells are part of the Excel zone. Any worksheets that contain no Contributor data or Contributor cells are also part of the Excel zone.

Reorienting Contributor data to view different dimensions will temporarily hide data in Excel cells on worksheets containing Contributor data .

The Contributor Excel Toolbar

The Contributor Excel toolbar displays Contributor Excel formulas when a cell containing a Contributor Excel formula is selected and allows you to perform the following operations:

IconDescription

 

Run the selected Contributor Excel formula.

 

Run all Contributor Excel formulas in this cube.

 

Run all Contributor Excel formulas.

 

Delete selected Contributor Excel formula.

 

Delete all Contributor Excel formulas in this cube.

 

Delete all Contributor Excel formulas.