If you've even struggled to get PROC REPORT output to appear the way you want, you need this book.

The SAS^® Programmer's PROC REPORT Handbook: ODS Companion, by Jane Eslinger is a companion to the author’s previously published book: The SAS Programmer’s PROC REPORT Handbook: Basic to Advanced Reporting Techniques. Jane is a SAS Technical Support analyst who supports PROC REPORT and ODS. Every day she helps programmers get their reports looking the way they want. She’s compiled her accumulated expertise in this very readable book.

The purpose of this book is to “… teach you how PROC REPORT works with ODS and the steps that you can take with your code to ensure that you are getting the output in the format that you need and with all the styling enhancements that you want.” The first three chapters provide a concise explanation of what the PROC REPORT programmer needs to know about the templates, the five style elements, and the style overrides used by PROC REPORT. The following chapters deal separately with each of the major ODS destinations: PDF, RTF, Excel, HTML, and PowerPoint. PROC REPORT behaves differently with each of these destinations and each destination has its own options and sub-options that affect PROC REPORT output. Jane describes the unique aspects of each and provides programming techniques (with plentiful example code and output) that enable the report to be displayed as needed.

This book is geared to SAS programmers of any level who want a practical guide to creating presentation quality output with PROC REPORT and ODS. I highly recommend it!

Paul Grant
Steering Committee of the Boston Area SAS Users Group (BASUG)

Jane Eslinger's first book, The SAS^® Programmer's PROC REPORT Handbook: Basic to Advanced Reporting Techniques has earned its place on my workstation shelf with its meticulous and complete detailing of all things PROC REPORT related. Jane's second book, The SAS^® Programmer's PROC REPORT Handbook: ODS Companion, sparked the realization that reporting techniques aren’t the whole story, and the environment(s) that reporting programs operate in should be considered, and carefully details the interactions between ODS elements such as templates, styles and ODS destinations.

Both of Jane's books are truly working "handbooks" for SAS technicians, including discussions of relevant points, SAS code with detailed explanations of what the code is doing, and the output demonstrating a particular point. As an expert SAS programmer who specializes in reporting and information visualization, I value the insights and practical examples, explanations and encouraging tips; as a supervisor and mentor, I have and will continue to recommend (and somewhat reluctantly loan out) both of Jane's books as essential, practical and insightful additions to the SAS programmer's reporting toolkit.

Louise Hadden
Lead Programmer Analyst
Abt Associates