The heart of nutrition and fitness software is its ability to analyze the nutrient information. There are two basic approaches that nutrition analysis packages use to analyze the data.

Fixed Template Reports. "Fixed Template" reports involve using a third party component known as a "Report Generator." The user selects a fixed template from a list of report options, then the software generates the report and allows the user to print the report.

The advantage of this "fixed template" type of report is that the report is attractive. Report Generators allow software makers to put boxes around portions of the data. They can insert graphs and images. Shading can be incorporated, and a judicious mixture of fonts, font sizes, and effects make these attractive reports for handing to clients.

One disadvantage of this "fixed template" type of report is that users often have no control over which nutrients are analyzed... these are pre-selected ("fixed") for you. Users can't control the depth of the analysis. Users have no control over what is analyzed or how... they must select from one of the fixed templates that the software maker offers. The format is rigid; there is no (or very little) customization.

Flexible Template Reports. Some diet and nutriton software available today takes the fixed template report concept quite a bit further. They allow you to select the type of report you wish to generate, then let you set up your options, determine which nutrients to analyze, which days to analyze, which meal and snacks to analyze, whether to include a border, border style, whether to include dividers, divider styles, whether to include pie charts, pie chart colors, etc. You can control dozens of aspects of the final report. Then click the Save As button to save all your customized settings under a descriptive name. Any comments, personal information, bylines, etc. will be saved for use again in a future report. You can select this "template file" by clicking the down arrow at the upper right corner of this window to generate a similar report for someone else or to repeat this report for the same client at a later date.

And if you want to send this type of report to someone via email or as a printout, just save it as a PDF file (this is professional software capability available in some nutrition software packages).

Word Processor Style Reports. Another approach to generating reports is the word processor method.

A minor disadvantage to the word processor formatted report is that the report is not as pretty as one generated by a Report Generator. It doesn't incorporate boxes around text and it doesn't use drop shadows around boxes.

But there are some advantages to this approach:
You have a lot of control over what goes into the report. You determine the nutrients to analyze, the meals and snacks to include, the depth of the analysis (whether you want weekly averages, daily totals, totals for the day plus each individual snack, or all of the preceding plus individual breakdowns for every food eaten).
You can define all the criteria that goes into a particular type of analysis, then save this set of selections as an "analysis template file." This involves clicking the Save Button and giving the new setup a name. The setup can then be retrieved any time in the future for reuse. Each template you save represents a unique customized report format.
This format is "Web-Friendly." You can save the report as a text file (to include in the body of an email), as a word processor file (to send as an email attachment to a client in another location), or as a web page (to post on your web site for your client to visit, view, and/or print). This type of report is software independent… someone in Germany can get your file and print the report at their leisure.

Most high-end nutrition software uses the "fixed template" approach to analyzing data. At least one software product on the market today supports both word processor reports and formatted reports.

Note: This description is a feature that is available in at least one nutrition and fitness software product. In some cases, this feature may be available in a variety of nutrition software products. When this feature is available, it will be implemented in different ways by different products. The description provided here is an accurate description of how this feature works in at least one of these products.