Microsoft Excel Formats

Excel 2007 and Excel 2007 Data formats render report output in native Excel XML format, also known as XLSX. This format provides a fast way to deliver native Excel spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft Excel 2003, and Microsoft Excel 2007. Users of Microsoft Excel 2002 and Microsoft Excel 2003 must install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, which provides file open and save capabilities for the new format.

Excel 2007 provides fully formatted reports for use in Microsoft Excel version 2007.

The output is similar to other Excel formats, with the following exceptions:

• Charts are rendered as static images.
• Row height can change in the rendered report to achieve greater fidelity.
• Column widths that are explicitly specified in reports are ignored in Microsoft Excel 2007.
• Merged cells are used to improve the appearance of reports.
• The default size of worksheets is 65 536 rows by 256 columns.

  Your IBM Cognos administrator can enable larger worksheets and change the maximum number of rows in a worksheet, up to a maximum of 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows, by using advanced server properties. For more information, see the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Administration and Security Guide.

Excel 2007 Data provides data for use in Microsoft Excel version 2007. These reports only contain minimal formatting. Default data formatting is applied to the data based on data type and assumes that each column has a single data type.

The output is similar to other Excel formats, with the following exceptions:

• The generated output includes only the first list query in the report. If a report contains multiple queries and the first query is a multi-dimensional query for a crosstab or for a chart, an error message is displayed when the report runs.
• Nested frames and master-detail links are not supported.
• Cells in the Microsoft Excel file have a default width and height. You must adjust the column width and height if the data is larger than the default size.
• Style specifications are not rendered, including color, background color, and fonts.
• Borders are not rendered.
• User-specified data formatting in the report specification are not applied, including exception highlighting and color rules for negative numbers.

Excel 2002 provides fully formatted reports for use in Microsoft Excel versions earlier than 2007. The maximum size of worksheets is 65,536 rows by 256 columns.

By default, Excel 2002 spreadsheets sent by email are created in Excel Multipart HTML format with the .mht file extension. Administrators can change the default file extension to .xls using an advanced settings parameter. For more information, see Changing the default file extension for Excel 2002 spreadsheets.