About Historian Excel Add-In

The Using Historian Excel Add-In manual is intended for process control engineers, integrators, and developers responsible for creating and maintaining Historian reports in Excel.

The Historian Excel Add-In greatly expands the power and benefits of using the Historian data archiving and retrieval system. Using the Add-In, you can:
  • Add tags to Historian by generating a tag worksheet using the standard Excel tools, editing the parameters, and then bulk importing the information directly into Historian.
  • Export tag parameters to Excel, using similar techniques, make bulk changes, and import the changes back into Historian.
  • Retrieve selected data from any archive file.
  • Display it in a customized report.
  • Present the data in any of 12 standard chart formats.
  • Calculate derived variables from raw data values.
  • Perform mathematical functions to smooth or characterize data.
  • Import, export, and modify tags, data, and messages all with familiar Excel commands, macros, and computational techniques.
  • Create dynamic reports that you can share among users.

Excel Add-In Dialog Box Conventions

The Excel Add-In uses several conventions in its dialog boxes that allow you to take full advantage of the features of the Historian Excel Add-In:
  • The selection of tags, times, and events can be done either by cell references or by manually entering the values.
  • Many dialog boxes support selecting multiple statistics or attributes. You can select multiple items in a list using one of the following methods:
    • Dragging the mouse over multiple items.
    • Pressing the Shift key and clicking the ends of a contiguous range.
    • Pressing the Control key and clicking multiple individual items.
  • Specifying an Output Cell is always optional. If you do not specify an output cell, the active cell is used as the starting point for output. When you specify an output cell, that cell is used as the starting point for output. If you select a range for an output cell, the top left cell in the range is used as the starting point for output.
  • Specifying an Output Range determines how many data points are retrieved from a given query. It is important for these functions to specify whether data points should be sorted in ascending or descending order by selecting the appropriate option.
  • Ensure when you are specifying an Output Range or an Output Cell that the active cells are not the same cells that you specified with tag name cell references. This will lead to circular cell referencing and incorrect values.
  • Specifying data retrieval into Rows or Cols determines how multiple attributes or statistics are displayed in the worksheet.
  • Specifying data retrieval into Rows or Cols only applies when the dialog box inserts a single function into the worksheet. When you select a multi-cell output range, the orientation of that range determines whether the requested data is returned into rows or columns.
  • Excel does not support the use of the right and left arrow keys of the keyboard to move between characters in text boxes and fields in the dialog boxes.
  • If no parameters in an Excel formula change, the formula does not recalculate unless you edit (press F2) the formula and force a change. For example, if you change a Hi Scale value from 100 to 50 and then import a tag, the Hi Scale field will display 100 when looking at the tag information.
  • When retrieving data in the Excel Add-In, be sure to leave at least one blank line at the top of the output display for the column header labels. If you do not, the header labels will not show.
  • When you retrieve data in the Excel Add-In for more than one tags, and if you choose to display the time stamp in the output, then the time stamp will be displayed only once and the parameter values of the selected tags will be shown based on the orientation selected.
  • In several of the fields, an underscore appears at the right side of the field. If you click the underscore, the dialog box instantly changes to a minimized display. You can return to the original display by clicking the box again. The purpose of this feature is to permit you immediately to see an unobstructed view of your worksheet or other windows as you work your way through the dialog box and to allow you to select a cell or range of cells in the worksheet.