Active Item

Use these options to manage the currently selected smartRush item.

Best practice

The In-Place functionality of smartRush provides an easy way to change the format or update a single smartRush item. However the Active item tab of the smartRush taskbar offers more detailed options.

Active item in the smartRush taskbar

When a smartRush item is selected in the report the Active item tab of the smartRush taskbar will show several information about the currently selected item.

Active item in the smartRush taskbar

The top list provides the following information about the currently selected smartRush item:

  • Title: This property shows the title the user has given the item either in Excel or by using the live insert feature.
  • Type: This property shows the type of the smartRush item which may be linked text, linked range or linked chart
  • File: Shows the file that contains the smartRush item
  • Path: Shows the full path to the file. this may be a local path, an UNC path or a path to a Sharepoint Online, Teams or OneDrive server
  • Display: Shows how the linked text item is currently displayed in the report. This property is only available for linked text items.
  • Value: Shows the underlying native value of the smartRush item before any format options are applied
  • Format: Shows the currently applied format for the smartRush item
  • Last update: Shows when the smartRush item was last updated
  • Is highlighted: Indicates if the smartRush item is currently highlighted and what highlighting method was used quick or full
  • Gridlines: Indicates the gridline settings for an image. This option is only available for linked ranges and linked charts.
  • Image format: Indicates the file format of the linked picture. This option is only available for linked ranges and linked charts.
  • Image size: Indicates the size mode of the linked picture. This option is only available for linked ranges and linked charts.

The bottom list shows the history of the linked item. The fucntionality of the history is as follows:

  • Whenever a linked smartRush item is updated a history entry will be added
  • The first history entry will be added when the smartRush item is inserted
  • The history tracking of smartRush easily enables you to investigate what numbers have changed, when they have changed and who changed them
  • If an update is performed, but the value does not change smartRush will also add a history entry to indicate there has been an update
  • By default smartRush stores the last 50 changes
  • Clicking the Clear history button will clear the history for the currently selected smartRush item.
  • Clicking the Open history button will open a dialog showing more detailed information about the item’s history, including the username of the person who changed the item.

Global Operations on the Active item tab

The buttons on the top of the Active item tab in the smartRush taskbar provide some global operations.

Global operations
Update all button
Update all button
  • Clicking the Update all button at the top of the tab will open the Update dialog
  • The dropdown menu of the update button provides some controls to quickly perfom updates
    • Items to be updated: Select the smartRush items that should be updated
    • Update settings
      • Open closed files: If this option is enabled closed files will be opened and smartRush items will be refreshed
      • Recalculate files: If this option is enabled smartRush will recalculate all files during the update, regardless if the Excel files are not set to automatically recalculating
      • Show update summary: If this option is enabled a summary will be shown after the update
    • Scope to be updated
      • Update active slide: Only smartRush items on the currently active slide will be updated
      • Update all slides: smartRush items on all slides in the report will be updated
    • Unlink items: Use these controls to unlink all smartRush items. The functionality of the settings is equivalent to the settings for the update
Set HL button
Set HL button
  • Clicking the Set HL button will apply quick highlight for all smartRush items on the currently active slide
  • The dropdown menu of the button provides some more detailed controls for highlighting smartRush items
    • Open highlight dialog: Clicking this button will open the Highlight dialog
    • Find hardcoded numbers: Enables you to search for any hardcoded numbers that are not linked. See the help articel on Find hardcoded numbers for further information.
    • Items to be highlighted: Select the smartRush items to be highlighted
    • Highlighting settings
      • Quick highlighting: If this option is enabled smartRush will perform a quick highlighting. Please see the help articel on the Highlight dialog for further information an quick vs. full highlighting.
      • Color: Select the color for the highlight here
      • Font color: This option is only available for full highlighting. If this option is enabled the font color will be set during the full highlighting process.
      • Underline: This option is only available for full highlighting. If this option is enabled smartrush items will be underlined during the full highlighting process.
    • Scope to be highlighted
      • Active slide: highlight smartRush items on the currently active slide
      • All slides: Highlight smartRush items on all slides
Remove HL button
Remove HL button
  • Clicking the Remove HL button will remove all quick highlightings on the currently active slide
  • The dropdown menu of the button provides some more detailed controls for removing highlights from smartRush items
    • Open highlight dialog: Clicking this button will open the Highlight dialog. The dialog also contains a button to remove highlightings.
    • Highlights to be removed
      • Remove quick highlighting: If this option is enabled quick highlightings will be removed from smartRush items
      • Remove full highlighting: If this option is enabled full highlightings will be removed from smartRush items
    • Scope
      • Active slide: Removes the highlighting from smartRush items on the current slide
      • Active presentation: Removes the highlighting from smartRush items on all slides in the presentation

Operations for currently selected item on the Active item tab

The controls in the Selected item section provide some operations for the currently selected smartRush item.

Selected item operations
Update button
Update button
  • Clicking the Update button will update the currently selected smartRush item
  • The dropdown menu of the button provide some more detailed options
    • Open file if closed: If this option is enabled the file will be opened if it is closed and the smartRush item will be refreshed (linked ranges and linked charts are always opened)
    • Recalculate file: If this option is enabled the file will be recalculated, regardless of the calculation settings in Excel.
    • Show summary: If this option is enabled an update summary will be shown after the update.
    • Scope
      • Single item: If this button is clicked only the currently selected smartRush is updated.
      • All of this item: If this button is clicked all inserted items from the same smartRush item are refreshed. It can be selected if this should be applied to the current slide only or to all slides in the presentation.
      • All from same file: If this button is clicked all inserted items from the same file are refreshed. It can be selected if this should be applied to the current slide only or to all slides in the presentation.

Selection dropdown

Selection menu
  • Open source: Clicking this button opens the source file and selects the source of the smartRush item in the file
  • Copy format: Clicking this button will copy the format from the currently selected item to all items from the same source either on the active slide or on all slides in the presentation. Copying the format to other items is a great way to quickly apply custom formats.
  • Highlighting: This submenu provides the same highlighting options as the menu at the global operations. However it can be selected if only the single item should be highlighted or if all items from the same source or the same file should be hihglighted. This is a quick way to identify items from a specific file.
  • Unlink: this operation is equal to the global unlink operation. However, it can be selected if only the single item should be unlinked or if all items from the same source or the same file should be unlinked. Unlinking all items from the same file this way is equal to launching the unlink operation from the context menu of a file on the Manage file tab.
Format dropdown

The format dropdown is only available for linked text items and provides the same formatting options as when inserting new smartRush items.

In-Place editor

When a smartRush item is selected small pop-up controls are shown next to the smartRush item which allow the application of quick changes.

Linked text items

The pop-up control for linked text items consists of two buttons.

Pop-Up control for text items

Format: The first button shows the format menu which is equal to the format menu shown in the taskbar. Just be aware that any regional settings have to be chosen before hitting any of the format buttons.

Operations: The operation button contains the same functionality as the Selection dropdown on the Active item tab of the taskbar. in addition the operation button contains a History button to directly launch the history dialog.

Linked ranges and linked charts

The pop-up control for linked ranges and linked charts only consists of one single button:

Pop-up control for ranges and charts

The functionality of the pop-up control for linked ranges and linked charts equals the functionality of the operations button in the pop-up control for linked texts.