Home → Techniques and Tips → @RISK Simulation: Numerical Results → Customizing the Quick Reports
Applies to: @RISK 5.x–7.x
I would like to make some changes in the layout or contents of the Quick Reports; how can I do that? What is the best way to reproduce the Quick Report? Is there any way to access the template file that generates it? Can I create customized forms of other graphs and reports?
By design, the Quick Reports are not very customizable. (You can change the type of tornado graph, see Tornado Graph in Quick Reports.) The idea is that they should always be in the same layout to make them as quick to read as possible. But there are several ways you can get the same information in customized graphs.
Option A (@RISK 7): Custom Reports
New in @RISK 7.0, Custom Reports let you mix and match graphs and statistics tables. By default, one Custom Report is produced for each output, but the Custom Reports tab in the Excel reports dialog lets you choose to report only particular outputs.
For more, see the "Custom Reports" and "Custom Report Outputs" topics in @RISK help.
Option B: Copy/Paste
This is fastest if you have a one-time need. You can store some customizations in Application Settings, but some can only be done manually for each graph.
Option C: Report Templates
You can create one or more templates for your own customized reports and use them instead of the Quick Reports, or in addition to the Quick Reports. Set up a template on a dedicated tab (worksheet) within your workbook. The worksheet name must have the form RiskTemplate_reportname, where reportname is the desired name of the report sheet. See Creating and Using Report Templates for more.
Any Excel or @RISK formulas can be part of your template sheet. You can easily include statistics like means and percentiles through Insert Function » Statistic Functions » Simulation Results, and include graphs through Insert Function » Other Functions » Miscellaneous » RiskResultsGraph.
This is an automated solution, and it's quick to set up, but when you use RiskResultsGraph only a few customizations are available.
Option D (@RISK 6.2 and Newer): Visual Basic for Applications
Beginning with @RISK 6.2.0, there is a more flexible alternative for placing graphs in your worksheet. The new RiskGraph object gives you many customizations, but you do need to write Visual Basic code to use it. A new Automation Guide (Help » Developer Kit (XDK) » Automation Guide) explains how to create some basic graphs. For many more options, with a listing of every property and method, see the XDK help file (Help » Developer Kit (XDK) » @RISK XDK Reference).
A small example is attached, showing a RiskResultsGraph tornado and a RiskGraph tornado created through Visual Basic. (Run a simulation to see both of them. Depending on your screen resolution, one of them may hide part of the other, so that you'll need to move it.)
For another example, see Placing Graphs in an Existing Worksheet with VBA.
VBA automation is available in @RISK Professional and Industrial Editions only.
Last edited: 2015-06-30