Print, Email, and Export Report Data

Print or email your report exactly as it is, or manipulate and analyze the data outside of PDS.

Printing a report

You can print a physical copy of your report when you need to see the data outside of your PDS program.

When you reach the Select Printer window in the report process, you'll need to select your printer. Make sure this printer is turned on and able to print.
Click Properties to adjust how your printer will print the report. For example, you may want to print in grayscale, print on both sides of the paper, and so on. These settings are specific to your printer, so be sure you review them carefully.
Note: Reports that may print color, like those that include images, have an additional option in the PDS window for Print in black and white (conserves colored ink). If you want to print in color, you must clear this option and also make sure your printer is set to print color copies.
If you chose for your printer to use duplex printing, you must also select an option for Duplex in the PDS window. Otherwise, you can set this option to Simplex for one-sided printing.
Continue through the report process to change the layout and set your selections.
Preview the report to ensure everything looks correct. If you need to make changes, click Back.
When you're ready, click Print.

You may want to save the report on your computer to view later, also known as "print to file". You can do this one of two ways:

When you reach the Select Printer window in the report process, instead of selecting a printer, choose a "print to file" or "print to PDF" option in the drop-down list. Then, complete the report process as usual. When you click Print, a Print dialog box presents the option to Print to File. Select the type of file you want and any other options based on your needs. Click OK to save your report.
OR
After you've made all your selections for the report, click Save Directly to File at the bottom of the report process window. Browse to the location on your computer where you want to save the report. Enter a file name for your report, and select the appropriate Save as type based on how you want to open it. Click Save. You may be prompted to open the saved report in an application on your computer.

Tip: Having trouble locating your report from OnDemand? Check out our help topic and video on saving files to your desktop in OnDemand!

Emailing a report

You may want to send a digital copy of a report. For example, since many people prefer email over physical mail, you can email their letters.

First, you need to make sure your PDS program is set up to send emails.
- On the File menu in your PDS program, click Setup > Email & Text Setup.
- If you're using OnDemand, you must use the OnDemand server option. On the Email Server Setup tab, make sure you select the OnDemand option and Use the Simple Email dialog.
- If you are not using OnDemand, you have different options for setting up your email server. See Email and Text Setup for details on each setting to determine which is best for you.
- Once your email server information is configured, click Test Email to confirm that it's working.
Next, double-check that the people you want to email have email addresses entered on their records. You must also indicate which individuals prefer to receive email over mail.
- Families – On each family record, in the Primary Information window, enter any family email addresses. Select Pref. if they prefer email at the selected email address.
- Members – On each member record, in the Communication window, enter any member email addresses. Select Pref. if they prefer email at the selected email address.
- Personnel – On each personnel record, in the Communication window, enter any personnel email addresses. Select Pref. if they prefer email at the selected email address.
- Financial statements – You can send financial statements to people other than the family by adding contacts in the Billing Address section for funds. Enter an email address, select Send Email Over Mail, and indicate when to send statements to which address.
Example on person's record Example on fund record
Finally, you can send the emails. Run the report, and when you're choosing the families or individuals to include on the Selection Information tab, select Email the Letter if. Then, choose to either email the letter if the family/individual has the option selected on their record (select Preferred is Checked) or email the letter if the family/individual simply has an email address entered on their record (select Has an Email Addr). To send the letter/statement to all email addresses associated with the family/individual, select Send to Multiple Emails.

Note: These email options are saved per report and are not part of the saved selection. They default to the same options you selected last time you ran the report.
When you preview the report, the program builds a list of those who should receive regular mail and those who should receive email.
You can preview the first letter or statement to be printed. Email previews don't display. There are several options for the type of email you can send. Determine which option works best for the content of your report. To send the email messages, click Start Email.
If there's an error connecting or an issue with any single transmission, you can print the record and create a letter/statement for regular mail. If you print mailing labels or envelopes to match a letter or statement, you can exclude those that were sent by email. On the Selection Information tab for the label report, select Skip the Label/Envelope if Email.
You should always follow these Best Practices for Bulk Emailing.

Exporting a report

You can save your report as a CSV or other useful file type. Then, you can open the file in another application to work with the report data in different ways.

Remember, you can create your own export report from scratch by clicking Add at the bottom of the Select Report window and selecting Export. Then you can select any fields you want to export to the file.
To export a listing report, run the report as usual, but instead of previewing and printing it, click Export List at the bottom of the window. Browse to the location on your computer where you want to save the file. Select the type as Comma Separated Value (*.csv), and enter a meaningful file name ending in ".csv". Note the location before you click Save so you can find the exported report later.
If you plan to use Excel or OpenOffice to work with your report data, we recommend following these steps for the best result.
Tip: If you're seeing a lot of spacing between columns when you export, these steps should help!
See our video on the export report. Click here to watch now:

Sending to an envelope company

If you use an envelope company to send mail, you can export the family and/or member information from PDS Church Office and send the file for processing.

From the Reports section, locate Export to Envelope Companies and run the report.
Select the envelope company you will send the file to. The options may change based on your selection.

$Example of the Envelope Company export with a company selected, a file name entered as "C:\Desktop\envelope.csv", and other options for building the export file$
Take note of the filename — this is where your export will be saved. If needed, you can change the location where the file will be saved by clicking the folder icon . You might save it to your desktop for easy access when it's time to send the file to your envelope company. Make sure the correct file extension (such as .csv or .dat) is included.
Review the available options, and make the appropriate selections based on your needs.
- You can include just families, just members, or both families and members.
- If you use the Envelope User checkbox on records, make sure you select Limit to Those With Envelope User Checkbox Marked.
- You can limit the data you export to a certain range of ID numbers.
- If any families have an alternate address set on their record (such as a vacation home in the summer) and they want mail sent there, make sure you enter the date to use so the mail goes to the correct address at the time it's sent.
- If your envelope company does not accept files with special characters (such as à, ñ, or æ), select the option to change these to equivalent regular letters (such as a, n, or ae).
Use the family selections to further limit the data that will be exported.
- If any families have the Send No Mail/Email option set on their record, you may consider selecting Ignore the 'Send No Mail/Email' on the Family Screen if this is an important mailing.
- If you use a family keyword to indicate which records should be exported, you can click the Additional Selections tab and add a condition to pull these records. Select the Fam Keyword Description field, set is equal to, and select the keyword you use for these records. For example:
Once the file is generated, you can send it to your envelope company for processing. Contact your envelope company for instructions on sending the file.

Tip: If your file contains more or fewer records than expected, go back and make sure your report selections are correct. You can use the Review Selections button to see which records are or are not included and why.