Preserving Excel Table Format

[Nelso01c]

Is there a way to Preserve a table formatted in Excel. My first attempt to create a table was by using OUTPUT DATA tool under OPTIONS and selecting OVERWRITE SHEET RANGE & checked the box for PRESERVE FORMATTING ON OVERWRITE (RANGE REQUIRED) and the desired outcome wasn't what I was looking for. Then I used the BASIC TABLE tool & the RENDER tool to format the OUTPUT, but still would like to have my data copied to a specific sheet already formatted. See below!

COUNT	Reference point	Item Number	BOM Level	Material number	Final material number	Description	Component quantity
11	B11	C11	D11	E11	F11	G11	H11
12	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓
13
14

[cjaneczko]

When you use the Preserve formatting on output you need to specify the range the data is outputting to. If you do this the formatting will remain preserved from what was on the sheet originally, including conditional formatting. 

[OTrieger]

Hi @Nelso01c 

The above solution is good as long as you do not mind that the target file is been overwritten. There is another way how to do it. First you create the excel template that you would like to use over and over again. Then you call to that template with Blob Input Tool and then Output it with Blob Output Tool, now you can write your data into the newly saved template using the setting that you mentioned. As @cjaneczko  you will need to define the range of the data. In this way you will have a prepared template that can use over and over again.

[Nelso01c · Accepted solution]

@OTrieger

First my apologies for such a late response! You mentioned "... Then you call to that template with Blob Input Tool and then Output it with Blob Output Tool, now you can write your data into the newly saved template using the setting that you mentioned..." I added the tools, but I am unable to achieve the desired output!

[lwolfie · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure if you were able to get this to work, here's some resources on the Blob tools that I found helpful. 

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

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/Excel-Templates-with-Blob-Tools-and-Control-Containers...

[EKasminsky]

I was initially intimidated by the blob tool, but found it really helpful to use in cases like this.