Output - preserve formatting not working (another one)

[Baz123]

Hi All,

I am in the final stages of my first workflow. Awesome support from members here btw!

The last issue I have is I cannot get the report to overwrite to an existing tab in an excel file, and preserve the formatting.

I have the output template with alignments set to middle (vertical and horizontal), the headers bolded, and column R has a conditional format to color the value based on output.

Whenever I run the flow it strips all formatting - even if the preserve formatting option is selected???

Attached is a simple input and output example showing options set:

It writes to the Raw Data tab as expected, yet nothing I try can get it to work. If you open the output template before running you can see the layout changes I am trying to keep.

Any help on this one would be appreciated.

Thanks again!

[DawnDuong · Accepted solution]

hi @Baz123 

You may want to check out this blog on using Blob to preserve formatting.

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/The-Blob-Reporting-That-Isn-t-From-a-Horror-Film/ba-p/...
Dawn.

[Baz123]

Hi @DawnDuong 

That seems to raise more questions than I had :)

So if I understand this correctly, the actual output tools cannot overwrite templates as you would expect. Others here seem to have success with it somehow.

What the article is saying is that I need to treat the output as a blob, then it can be fed into a template that has formatting needed - IF I want to do it simply?

I am trying to keep the workflow to a low / no code solution for others in the business to follow. No point work flowing in Alteryx if I am running a python script to do the lot anyway.

Currently trying to get it to output correctly with the blob example, trouble is it has a dynamic name output also mixed in there. Need to strip it back to see if I can get the blob to work first then addon to it.

Thanks for the heads up, I am sure I will have some follow on question later.

[Simplysavio]

Even I am facing the same issue as @Baz123 , any solutions on this would really be helpful