Create and Use a Vertical Header GLSU template

As of GLSU 7.0, a new GLSU template format has been added: Vertical Header.

In prior versions of the GLSU add-in, the only option was to create a Standard GLSU template. The Standard template format shows the document header fields (BKPF) on two rows. In the Vertical GLSU template the row-type header field section is hidden and a Vertical Header data entry area is created. This is sometime referred to as a “Journal Entry” format. Typically GLSU users have been creating this vertical entry format manually. The downside to this is that when new header fields are added, moved, or removed, the vertical header data entry area that was manually created often requires additional manual changes to continue to work properly. This new feature will not only create a vertical header entry area for you; but it will also maintain it automatically as you make changes in the Choose Fields screen.

To create a Vertical Header template format, select Choose Fields and proceed to select and arrange your fields as you normally would. When you are ready to create the template, select the Vertical Header setting. Pressing OK will create the vertical header formatted template.

What you will see that the row-wise header data entry area is now hidden. The fields from the hidden BKPF header rows will now be displayed in a vertical data entry format. Note that there are two buttons present to allow you unhide and hide the original standard BKPF header rows for review. The feature will be discussed more later in this document.

The vertical header consists of two columns. The first column represents the header field description while the second column represents the data value for the header field. Any changes that are made to the header description and header value will be copied to the hidden BKPF header fields. If you would like to see this, make changes to a vertical header field description and enter a data value. Click on the “+” button to view the standard header. You will see that your changes have been copied to the standard header. In addition, you may make edits to the standard header’s field descriptions and data if you like. All changes made in the standard header will be copied up to the corresponding fields in the vertical header area. Note that you may also make formatting changes either on the vertical or standard header areas. For example, all font, color, field alignment, etc. call be changed as desired. Note, however, Excel does not see these as cell changes and won’t copy the formatting until a header description or field value is entered. Along these lines, you can set the Auto format setting off to retain all formatting in the template. This setting is found on the General tab of the Options screen under Formatting.

The Vertical Header format has a few additional features that should be noted:

• Any existing GLSU template in the standard format can be converted to a vertical format just by changing the setting in the Choose fields screen.
• You can switch a GLSU template from standard to vertical or from vertical to standard at any time with no loss of data.
• Any user data above or to the right of the vertical header rows will not be lost when you add, move, or move header fields in the Choose Fields screen.
• When entering data into the vertical header data fields, pressing the [enter] key will move the selected cell to the next data entry field. Entering data and either clicking on a new cell or using the arrow keys will produce the same result.
• Once you have entered data into the last vertical header field and pressed [enter], the cell selection will move to the first data entry cell in the line items area.
• The vertical header area, which includes the cells in column A, cannot be moved or deleted. This is a protected area. If a row in the vertical header is deleted GLSU will automatically undo that change in order to maintain the one-to-one links to the BKPF header fields.
• Mixing standard and vertical header sheets in one workbook is supported.

Regarding Formulas in the Vertical Header

Because all data entered from the vertical header is copied to the hidden BKPF header fields, formulas are not permitted in the vertical header data entry fields. For example, if you have a “Document Header Text” field in vertical header and attempt to enter a “=glsu_description()” formula, GLSU will let you know that this cannot be done. If you chose to continue, GLSU will unhide the BKPF header and place the cell selection in the proper field. This is where you enter all header formulas. As the formulas create a change in the BKPF header cell, this data will be copied to the vertical header for you. Please also keep in mind that entering a formula anywhere on the GLSU template that references a cell in the vertical header area will not work as expected. As you make changes to the fields in the vertical header using the “Choose fields” screen, the vertical header is effectively removed and recreated. Therefore, any formulas in the GLSU template that are tied to a cell in the vertical header will also be removed by Excel.

Vertical Header Templates Loaded into pre-GLSU 7.0 Versions

The Vertical Header feature has been added only to the GLSU 7.0 (and future versions). This means that a workbook containing a vertical header formatted template will not work as expected when loaded into prior versions of GLSU. The workbook will load properly and all data will be preserved. However, you will find that changes to the vertical header fields will not copy to the BKPF header automatically as they do in GLSU 7.0. Further, the BKPF header area may still be hidden when the workbook was saved. This is not really an issue and can easily be handled.

Scenario: A GLSU 7.0 user creates a vertical header template workbook. The template is then loaded into a machine that has GLSU 6.2 (or earlier) installed.

The workbook will open without issue. The user will see the vertical header formatted area. However, the vertical header will not work as it does in GLSU 7.0. It will need to be removed manually. To remove the vertical header and use the GLSU template as a standard template, follow these steps:

Option 1:

1. Highlight the vertical header rows, including the row with the buttons showing, and delete the rows. If deleting the rows is going to remove user data, it would be best to manually clear out the vertical header area cells and then format the user data as desired.
2. Highlight the hidden rows above the “Line Items:” section. Right-click on the selected rows and select Unhide. The “Header” rows (BKPF) should now be visible.
3. From here, you can use the template as you would any other standard GLSU template.
4. When you pass the template back to a GLSU 7.0 user, they have the option to convert it back to a vertical header format in the Choose Fields screen. No template data will be lost.

Option 2:

1. Highlight the rows that the vertical header occupies and hide them.
2. Highlight the hidden rows above the “Line Items” section. Right-click on the selected rows and select Unhide. The “Header” rows (BKPF) should now be visible.
3. From here, you can use the template as you would any other standard GLSU template.
4. When you pass the template back to a GLSU 7.0 user, they have the option to convert it back to a vertical header format in the Choose Fields screen. No template data will be lost.

Note: ANY pre-GLSU 7.0 template can easily be converted from a standard format to a vertical format using in the Choose Fields screen.

Technical note: The vertical header functionality makes use of Excel’s ability to detect when a cell value has changed. Under rare circumstances this feature of Excel may stop working. This can happen if an Excel system error dialog pops up. If this happens, you can still validate and post. These functions push a copy of the vertical header data into the BKPF fields. The validation and post will work as expected. However, best practice would be to simply save the workbook and then close and re-open Excel and the workbook to regain full functionality.