You could always export the records using a SQL script instead of using the report wizard.  This will give you much more control over which records are included/excluded and can even perform some of the actions that are typically done afterwards in Excel (e.g. reformatting fields, summarising records, excluding records, search for specific text like 'roost' or 'nest', etc.)

Better still, run a SQL script that will extract all the records you need and insert them into a new table in the R6 database.  The data can then be spatialised (plotting records as points or polygons as required) and then accessed directly as a spatial GIS layer in ArcGIS or MapInfo.

This is how several LERCs in the south-east that I work with do it.  The SQL script give huge flexibility to select, format and enhance the record details as they are queried in R6, and the spatialisation saves having to plot records using Easting/Northings in GIS.

Hi Teresa

The benefit of using a GIS based approach (and integrating it with SQL Server, Access, Word and Excel) is that much of the process can be automated (from extracting the data from R6 to generating a final Word/PDF report).

Using a SQL script is certainly much easier to understand and maintain than a R6 XML/SQL report, and by exporting all your species records in to a new 'flattened' table you can then select and extract any sub-set of records for any client very quickly and easily using GIS tools written in MapBasic (for MapInfo) or Python (for ArcGIS).

I could certainly demonstrate the process for you, and discuss the pros and cons, although a long-distance demo might be tricky.  Are you planning on coming south any time or is there anywhere to meet part way?

Out of interest ... what GIS are you using?

That's brilliant, thanks Mike! We will test and hopefully it will sort our problem and then we can think about whether to change our report processes or not. We do have a few records with seasons only/unknown, but I don't think it matters greatly if they are included.

Andy - maybe there will be time for a demo at the ALERC conference in the autumn if you are going, I will ask Tom? CBDC doesn't produce PDF or word reports, we supply records as an excel worksheet with a lot of designation columns and distance from site, so clients can easily filter to the designations/see nearest records as they wish. (We get the designation columns from Recorder 6 too, we've added local designations.) We've got a report wizard template set up so it doesn't take too much time, importing the polygon and adding the constraint is the main chore, since the saved report wizard templates don't remember additional constraints. However being able to do that without opening Recorder may save some time? We've already automated most of the work in Excel using VBA/macros, apart from taking out personal addresses from locations of course, which is unfortunately not something I can see how to ever automate - too many house names rather than numbers, and numbers that relate to roads or compartments rather than addresses...

We're using ArcInfo. We do export the records twice a year to flattened tables to supply as grid square polygons to partners of course so there may be benefits there too. We have an ancient server so anything that can be processed on the PC rather than the server is better.

Hi Teresa

Sorry for the delay.  I hope to be going to the ALERC conference (whenever and wherever it is) so I would be happy to do a quick demo of how some LERCs extract data from Recorder6 and use it in GIS.  If there isn't room in the agenda I can do a quick demo during one of the breaks.

Thanks
Andy