Developing datasheets is not necessarily a complicated operation; however, it is a time consuming task having just the MS Excel available. Before developing the script, I used to copy cells from an instrument or line list columns into Excel datasheet templates cells. Each instrument type required a different template, and each template had tens of cells to be filled out. The MS Access form could provide some help, but it does not generate Excel native files which were usually required by the contract.
The program analyzes each line of the instrument list and creates a new Excel file with the datasheet template declared in the instrument list. The new file is named as an instrument tag and contains a datasheet number for easy identification. The program fills out datasheet cells with values from the instrument list based on the translation list. The translation list links the datasheet initial cell value with the instrument list header. If an adequate number of datasheet templates are created and the whole translation list is filled out, all datasheets can be generated with one program pass.