Alteryx Designer Desktop Knowledge Base
Definitive answers from Designer Desktop experts.Opening up an output excel file automatically
Here in Customer Support, we like to make sure our workflows run as smoothly as possible. Sometimes you may ask yourself “Why can’t my excel file just open right after I output it?”
Where there is a will, there’s a way.
Ladies and Gentleman, I introduce to you the beautiful functionality of the Run Command Tool.
With this trick, you never have to go into the directory to manually open the saved file again.
Note: There are multiple ways of doing this with the run command. This is just a simple example.
For this trick, you’ll only need 5 additional tools.
Before your output tool, you’ll need a Block Until Done Tool. This is for quality control as Excel doesn’t like to open when you are writing into it at the same time.
This prevents Alteryx from writing and opening at the same time.
Next, you’ll need a Formula Tool, which will just add another field with your command. When making this dynamic, you’ll want to make sure you update both the path of your output and formula tool.
Whether you do that in a macro or app, it’s entirely up to you. After the formula tool, you’ll want a sample tool so that way we only select tool to deselect all the fields except for your command. Now just make sure your run command is set up properly. In this example, it’s set to write out the command as a bat file and be read back in as a command.
To learn more about how to configure the run command, I would read through this helpful article.
After you have this set, watch as your workflow has made your life even more automatic.
