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Work with OLAP data offline

1. Open a PivotTable or PivotChart report based on the OLAP data that you want to access offline.

2. Is this the first time you're going offline? If so, create an offline cube file on your local hard disk.

   How?

   If your server database is not an OLAP database, and you accessed the data by creating a query in Microsoft Query, use Query to create the cube file. For full instructions, see Help in Microsoft Query.

   1. Click the PivotTable report for which you want to create an offline cube file.

      For a PivotChart report, click the associated PivotTable report.

   2. On the PivotTable toolbar, click PivotTable, and then click Offline OLAP.
   3. Click Create offline data file, or if an offline cube file already exists for the report, click Edit offline data file.
   4. In step 1 of the Offline Cube Wizard, click Next.
   5. In step 2 of the wizard, select each dimension from your server cube that has data you want to include in the offline cube file. Click the box next to each such dimension, and select the levels you want to include.
      • You cannot skip intermediate levels within a dimension.
      • To reduce the size of the cube file, omit lower levels that you don't need to view in the report.
      • Be sure to include any dimensions where you've grouped items, so that Microsoft Excel can maintain these groupings when you switch between the server database and the offline file.
      • Dimensions that do not have a box don't allow you to exclude levels. You can only include or exclude all of this type of dimension.
   6. In step 3 of the wizard, click the box next to Measures, and select the fields you want to use as data fields in the report. You must select at least one measure. For each dimension listed below Measures, click the box beside the dimension, and then select the top-level items to include in the offline cube file.
      • To limit the size of the cube file so that you don't run out of disk space and to reduce the amount of time to save the file, select only the items you need to view in the report. Any item properties available for the items you select are automatically included in the cube.
      • If items you want to include are missing, you may not have included the dimension containing them in the previous step. Click Back and select the missing dimension in step 2 of the wizard, then return to step 3.
   7. In step 4 of the wizard, specify a name and location for the .cub file, and then click Finish.

   Note  To cancel saving the file, click Stop in the Create Cube File – Progress dialog box.

   When Microsoft Excel finishes saving the file, proceed to the last step of this procedure.

3. Have you taken this report offline before, so that you already have an offline cube file on your hard disk? If so, reconnect to it.

   How?

   1. Click the PivotTable report, or for a PivotChart report, click the associated PivotTable report.
   2. Click PivotTable on the PivotTable toolbar, and then click Offline OLAP.
   3. Click On-line OLAP, and then click OK.

4. Does the server have new data since you created the offline cube file? If so, click Refresh Data , and wait for the file to be recreated and saved with the new data.

5. Disconnect from your network.

Note  Do not put the .cub file in the Windows briefcase. Excel does not use the briefcase to synchronize the offline cube file with the server database.