• Introduction
• Features
• Applications
• Screenshots
• FAQ (WS)
• Top 10 Benefits
• First Steps
  • Step-by-Step
  • Tips & Tricks
  • Reporting Entities
  • Restrictions
• Pricelist

Tips & Tricks

The following tips and tricks can save you time and help you create a professional looking web application.

1. Avoid having to scroll, better use multiple views
2. Adding hyperlinks to the sheets
3. Adjusting the row height of input cells
4. Setting a sufficient column width

Avoid having to scroll, better use multiple views

Don't force your users to scroll the browser window. From an ergonomic point of view, it not advantageous to display too many spreadsheets cells on one screen. It often makes sense to split the contents of one long table into smaller parts by using several sheets.

Also, keep in mind that HTML does not support the freezing of row or column titles. If the user has to scroll vertically through a long table, he will not be able to see the column title. In this sense, it is desirable to design screens that do not require the use of scroll bars.

How do you create additional screens? Most spreadsheet applications allow users to create more than one sheet per workbook. To do the same using the web application, create one sheet for each view: for example, one summary sheet and additional sheets with the detailed information. If your workbook contains many sheets, you might even want to create menu screens with multiple hyperlinks, with each hyperlink leading to a particular screen.

If your workbook has more than one sheet, the Worksheet Server™ will always show the first sheet on startup. The other sheets in the workbook can only be accessed through hyperlinks on the first sheet or on subsequent sheets.

How do you create hyperlinks in order to jump from one view to the other? This is explained in the next chapter.

Adding hyperlinks to the sheets

There is a special worksheet function called "Hyperlink()" (create with insert function) that makes the application jump from one screen to another. The function accepts the name of a sheet and a display label as its parameters. In our demo application, we used this function to enable a detailed view of 'Net Sales', as shown in the following picture.

Please notice that the only way to jump from one sheet to another is through the hyperlink function. If you do not insert at least one hyperlink function on your first sheet, all other sheets in the application will not be accessible to the user.

If your application consists of many sheets, it might make sense to build sheets with multiple hyperlinks. These screens will later act as menu screens, allowing for easy navigation within the web application.

Adjusting the row height of input cells

Input cells require a little more space in the browser. For this reason, the Worksheet Server™ automatically increases the row height in input cells to a minimum size of 19 pixels (14.25 Points).

It is good practice to set the row height to this value in your workbook beforehand. This insures that the appearance of the worksheet is identical in both the web application and in the spreadsheet application.

Setting a sufficient column width

The Worksheet Server™ does not automatically increase the column width for a cell when a large number is entered. If the number cannot not be fully displayed, it will display '########' instead.

It is the users responsibility to set the column width to a value that will always be wide enough for all possibly anticipated values.