Overview
This guide walks through installing Oracle Smart View for Office in Excel, and the most common reason it appears to fail: the ribbon not showing up after the installer runs. Smart View is a Microsoft Office add-in that connects Excel, Word, and PowerPoint to Oracle EPM Cloud (Planning, Financial Consolidation and Close, and other business processes), Oracle Analytics, and Essbase, for ad hoc analysis, data entry, reporting, and metadata management.
Before You Begin
A little preparation prevents most installation problems:
- Install a Smart View version that is compatible with your Oracle Cloud EPM environment. Oracle supports the current release and the one immediately before it for each Cloud EPM update, so installing the current version is the safest choice.
- Make sure the machine meets the prerequisites, currently Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 or higher. For the supported Microsoft Office, Microsoft 365, and Windows versions, check the Smart View Support Matrix (My Oracle Support Doc ID 1923582.1).
- Close all Microsoft Office applications before you run the installer, and run the installer with administrator rights.
Step 1: Download and Install
Download Smart View from Oracle Technology Network. The simplest path is from your Cloud EPM environment: on the Home page, click your user name in the top-right corner, click Downloads, and then click Download from Oracle Technology Network. Accept the license agreement, download the latest version, and unzip the archive to extract SmartView.exe.
With all Office applications closed, run SmartView.exe as an administrator and follow the prompts. If your work requires additional capabilities, such as the Administration extension used for editing dimensions and metadata, install those extensions separately after the base installation completes.
Step 2: Enable Smart View if the Ribbon Does Not Appear
Open Excel and look for the Smart View tab in the ribbon. If it is not there, the add-in simply needs to be enabled. Go to File > Options > Add-ins, then use the Manage drop-down at the bottom of the dialog:
- Select COM Add-ins and click Go, then make sure Oracle Smart View for Office is checked.
- Select Excel Add-ins and click Go, then make sure the HsTbar add-in (the Smart View add-in for Excel) is checked.
If Smart View still does not appear, return to the Manage drop-down, select Disabled Items, click Go, and re-enable Smart View if it is listed there, which is a frequent culprit when an Office crash has disabled the add-in.
Step 3: Restart Excel
Close and reopen Excel. The Smart View tab should now appear at the top of the window, and you are ready to connect to your applications.
Smart View Benefits
Once installed, Smart View lets you:
- Access data from Oracle Analytics and Oracle EPM Cloud applications directly in Excel
- Enter and submit data back to the source
- Build custom, refreshable reports
- Drill down through the appropriate hierarchy levels with a click
- Add custom formulas to analyze your data
For a tour of what you can do once it is installed, see our Smart View overview for Excel. If you would like help rolling out Smart View across your team, the CloudADDIE team is glad to help.