Report Services Export to Excel Tips

By Etienne Bley
July 11, 2014February 3, 2022

First, I am using RS 2008 – not SP1 or anything. This is quite frustrating but I know 2014 is coming soon (many old bugs fixed), but alas, here are some tips of things that I am struggling with and others have too.

Use Consistent Units

First, if you are getting extra columns and/or rows and you want contiguous (no hidden ones) in between – make sure ALL YOUR UNITS ARE THE SAME. Use inches with inches and cm with cm’s. Also align the “top” and “left” numbers to 0’s when possible. The main point is use numbers like 1.7in or 3.5cm and not 1.45235in. If you get numbers like that AND you did align (snap) to other objects, most likely something is in another unit that you are snapping to – or that IT is aligned to.

Headers not consistent when exporting to Excel

This guy has the key. Use Can Grow and Can Shrink to “False”