September 30, 2009 at 7:54 am
Is there an Ad Hoc Report Builder User guide I can give to my users?
I've searched everywhere and can't find a guide to give to my end users, so they can create thier own reports using my model.
September 30, 2009 at 7:57 am
What version of report builder are you using
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa337239(SQL.90).aspx
Apart from the usual microsoft help. in your case I would create your own, just create a few reports and screen shot it, would be of more benefit to your users and it makes you look good 😀
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September 30, 2009 at 8:03 am
Report Builder 2.0
Im really looking for a guide for my end users on the ad hoc portion of report builder only..
not intersted in giving them a report making guide..
September 30, 2009 at 8:06 am
As mentioned before, I would create the document yourself, better that way if you have the time.
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September 30, 2009 at 8:15 am
I as really hoping there was a user guide already out there somewhere...
October 7, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I've searched high and low as well, and posted asking the same. This definitely seems to be an area needing improvement by Microsoft, so some industrious Tech writer.
For the average user, there is quite a learning curve to this tool and asking them to do it without being able to recommend any sort of user "How To" guide makes this tool a hard sell to the user community. I have pointed out the online help and believe me, the users were pretty unresponsive and unenthusiastic about that.
As was suggested, I did create a document......but it's really not the best use of my time either!
User training would also be nice as I'm finding myself to be jack of all trades trying to implement this new tool with training and documenting myself.
I will also add I think it's great. It's just that the user base is being ignored. Hope somebody from MS is listening!
Just my two cents. Hope you find that guide and if you do, please post it here. I would definitely be interested
October 8, 2009 at 6:00 am
I've been looking for the same thing since ReportBuilder 1.0 and still haven't found anything decent. I've checked with MS as well and they were not able to provide me with anything either. We don't have a tech writer on staff and I have the same problem with time constraints when it comes to writing the document myself.
October 8, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Yeah it does seem like a real setback when it comes to implementing. We're implementing with our client base. I am doing some training with them (in my free time! ;-)) and have gotten eaten alive over the complexity of the tool, by some of the more resistent users. Some are genuinely excited and looking forward to this, but not being able to recommend any sort of training or "How To" guide makes this look lame.
October 15, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Not to beat a dead horse on this subject, but I brought this topic up at a SQL User Group last night when the topic of BI came up. The presenter suggested that I submit this to Microsoft, which I did on the Microsoft Connect site. Below is the URL to the issue, but you're going to need a LiveID to login and see it. Not sure, but you will probably need to join the SQL Server Connection as well:
https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=497983
It might be nice if some of y'all in the same predicament were to comment on this suggestion!
Regards!
Linda
October 17, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Hi, krypto69.
In my opinion, you can refer to the url below:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa569742(AX.10).aspx
I think it will be useful.
October 17, 2009 at 4:53 pm
A rather simple article, but the suggestion to pick out a few key users sounds as the way to go... you show one or two of them, and they in turn teach the others.
http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Development/2576/
The more interesting question is whether the end users can use it. I typically spend about 4 hours teaching the product in my class and while they are all generally experienced with reporting, we try to explore this product thoroughly so that they understand what it can do and are ready to train/support end users of the product if needed. Non IT power users can be up and running in an hour, I can see probably doing a two hour initial training session and then offering a two hour 'advanced session' for those that are interested and have actually put the product to work.
October 19, 2009 at 8:53 am
Actually "Bit" and all, this sums up my point. There are some nice tecnical articles out there for people like us, but they need to get something out there for the end-users who will use the tool.
The SSC article touches on the fact that you're always going to have resistance to something new. Having a direction in which to point those people, helps take the wind out of that sail and it puts something in the hands of the ones who are really excited to have Ad-Hoc capability.
For my in-house users, I did actually take the online MSDN intructions for Ad-Hoc and put them into PDF complete with TOC and links. It took me a lot of time, especially given that training is just a sideline for me! Unfortunately the users perceive that as "techie" and their eyes glaze over immediately. I could just point them in the direction of MSDN, but it looks really unprofessional when all I have to offer for "training" are links and made-up documents. In additon to internal users, I am dealing with a user base of paying clients and it looks very amateurish.
October 19, 2009 at 5:01 pm
FYI.....Response from MS Connect:
Greetings from Microsoft Connect!
This notification was generated for feedback item: User How-To Guide/Training Report Builder which you submitted at the Microsoft Connect site.
Thank you for using SQL Server Reporting Services.
We appreciate your detailed and thoughtful feedback.
We are working to improve and enhance our content with more tutorial type documentation as well as to re-organize the structure of it, oriented more around what users do and how they do it rather than the traditional feature by feature approach.
We have a lot of work ahead of us but with each release you will witness the phased transition of the content. Evolving over time our content into more complete end to end workflow type training. We are also looking to enhance and support a broader range of mediums such as podcasts and videos.
With that said, our user education team is not currently chartered to work on complete courseware. That may change over time but currently we are resourced and focused on a little more narrow view of the content, where we are more efficiently able to leverage our relationship with our own developers and rely on the broader community to build larger and broader courseware. While there is not a lot out there yet, as you point out, I think more is coming as the adoption of Report Builder as well as reporting services increases.
Thank you again for your time.
-Craig
April 27, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Just curious to know if anyone out there knows of a decent end user guide for report manager?
We are about to put together some user documentation before we release this product to the business.
April 28, 2010 at 6:52 am
For what its worth...
While I despise excel more than anything else in
creation, I have finally accepted that a)users like it,
and b)they already know how to use it, and more
importantly c)any report I make they dump into
excel anyway to further bastardize.
I let them browse data from my DW in excel and will
be using the new PowerPivot once we are ready
and able to. We do also have some canned SSRS reports
of course, that they use as well.
Hopefully, the dream of true self-service BI will
come to fruition. I dont have time to write 400000
reports or to train a few hundred users on how to
use Report Builder either....
We shall see 🙂
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