Export a Story as a PDF or a PPTX

You can export a story as a PDF file or as a Microsoft PowerPoint (PPTX) file.

Context

Your exported content won't be an exact match to your story pages:
  • The PDF or PowerPoint file shows exactly what appears on your story pages at the moment that you export them. If any charts or tables in your story are scrollable, only the visible parts are included in the exported file.

  • The visible content of the story pages in the story determines the size of the exported content: for PDF, the pages will be scaled up; for PowerPoint the content will be scaled down.

    If you want to print the PDF file to paper, you may need to use scaling options in your PDF viewing software.

    The following invisible elements won't be exported:

    • Invisible part in scrollable charts, tables or (Optimized Story Experience) containers including tab strips, panels, flow layout panels and page books

    • Collapsed table cells

    • Lazy rendered widgets

    • Lazy loaded data source

    • Comments on invisible data cells

    Besides these invisible elements, web page widgets won’t be exported.

Note
For an R visualization widget, a static plot will be exported. But if the R widget is written in RHTML (iFrame), it won't be exported.
Note

(Optimized Story Experience) Widgets might not keep all CSS styling settings when exported to PDF, for example, text decoration and opacity.

Restriction

(Optimized Story Experience) Exporting a table to PDF doesn’t support Unicode (UCS-2 BE/UTF16 BE).

Tip

(Optimized Story Experience) Custom widgets support PDF export now. However, to make sure that all the defined elements can be exported to PDF, custom widget developers need to be aware of the export restrictions and test first and then set supportsExport to true in the custom widget JSON file.

Procedure

  1. In view time, from the toolbar select Start of the navigation pathFile Next navigation step Export...End of the navigation path.
  2. In the dialog's File Type list, choose either PDF or PowerPoint (.pptx).
  3. In General Settings, choose which pages you'd like to export: All; or specify the Range, the specific pages.
  4. (Optimized Story Experience) For PDF export, you can define the following settings:

    • Orientation: Landscape or Portrait

      The Orientation option is disabled when the paper size is set to Auto.

    • Paper size: Auto, A2, A3, A4, A5, Letter or Legal
    • Page number position: Header, Footer or None
    • Exported file name
  5. (Optimized Story Experience, Optional) For PDF export, you can switch on Enable Header or Enable Footer to add header or footer text.
  6. (Optimized Story Experience, Optional) For PDF export, you can switch on Enable Comment to include comments in the export.

    The comments will be exported as separate pages. Comments on invisible widgets won't be exported.

    Note
    If you haven't enabled Commenting in embedded mode via Start of the navigation pathSystem Next navigation step Administration Next navigation step System ConfigurationEnd of the navigation path, the comment related settings and APIs won’t take effect.
  7. (Optional) Select Insert Appendix (for classic stories) or switch on Enable Appendix (for optimized stories) to include an appendix containing the story's filter settings and variables set for the story.
    Note

    The story's URL is included in the appendix. If you don't want to include it, you need to enable the following system configuration option: Remove Story URL from Appendix.

  8. (Optional) If you've applied scaling to any charts, you can select Apply Scaled Measures Across All Included Pages to scale the charts across pages.
    When charts are scaled per page, the chart density is automatically determined using all charts from the same page only. When charts are scaled across pages, the chart density is determined by all charts that are being exported.
  9. Grid Page Settings: when your story has grid pages, you can choose how to export the grid page content.
    Tip

    In some PDF-viewing software, large tables will have truncated content. You can use Split Grid into Pages to avoid truncation and to improve the readability of the generated pages in external PDF viewers.

    Just remember that splitting the grid into several pages will lead to more exported pages, and that might increase the time needed for exporting.

    • Use Whole Grid

    • Split Grid into Pages: Specify the number of columns and rows to use on each page.

  10. (Classic Story Experience, Optional) Select Enable Export in the Background if you want to continue working while the file is being processed and saved. You may experience a slower response time until the export is complete.
    Note

    We don’t recommend to enable the export in the background for HTML R Visualization widgets as in this case the exported PDF may not work as expected.

  11. (Classic Story Experience) Batch Exporting: Select this option to export some or all members of a story filter.
    Note

    If you have a large number of members in the batch, the export may take a long time to complete.

    1. From the list, select a story filter.

      A message shows how many members are currently selected for that filter.

    2. Select the message to open the Set Filters dialog.
    3. Select the members to include in the export.
    4. When you've finished making your selections, click OK.
  12. Select Export to create and download the file to your computer.

Results

Your story is exported.

Note
Exported tables are best viewed in your PDF viewer at 100% zoom, and with custom line rendering turned off.

  • Adobe Acrobat Reader editing preferences: in the Page Display section, select Rendering, and then clear the checkboxes for Enhance thin lines and Smooth images.

  • PDF-XChange Editor settings: in the Page Display section, select Rendering, and then set Stroke Adjust to Off.

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