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I have an SSRS 2008 R2 report, where I have users that want to export the reports to excel. They are able to export the reports to excel, and they want to be able to sort the data in excel. However they are getting an error message that says there is a problem due to 'merged cells'. Thus can you tell me what you would do to solve the problem?

user1816979
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The problem of merged cells is due to header cells being different sizes from the tablix cells. Excel tries to align everything like in the report by merging the cells together which causes complications when sorting. What you need to do is strip the headers out when you render in Excel format. There are some strategies to do this. See my answers about how to add a new Excel renderer or how to export to Excel with no headers.

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Chris Latta
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  • I have the following additional questions to ask you that are: 1. will the tablix header be removed? If so, is there a way to keep the tablix headers from being removed? 2. When I run the ssrs 2008 r2 report on my workstation, will I have the export problem? If so, since I do not have a config file to work with on my workstation, how can I override the default render that excel has? – user1816979 Nov 04 '13 at 01:55
  • 1. I get the tablix header when exporting using SSRS 2008 R2. 2. While you can add another Excel rendering extension into the `\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\Private Assemblies\RSReportDesigner.config` file, it doesn't seem to support `SimplePageHeaders` and you still get the header. – Chris Latta Nov 04 '13 at 03:00
  • Can I use this option on Sql Server 2012? If so, would the directions be different somehow? – user1816979 Nov 04 '13 at 15:46
  • No idea, I use SSRS 2008 R2. I imagine it is the same. Why not try it and see? – Chris Latta Nov 04 '13 at 22:58
  • I have the following other items to mention: 1. I will try it and see what happens. 2. If I chose to do the options you suggested, can I keep the existing export to excel option and add the other options to export to excel for users to chose from? If so, can you tell me how to add all the export options to the new export options for excel as well as keep the existing keep the existing export option? – user1816979 Nov 05 '13 at 02:30
  • Yes, if you use my [process for adding a new Excel renderer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3048363/ssrs-2005-set-simplepageheaders-on-the-report-instead-of-the-server/3058576#3058576) you will have two options - `Excel` and `Excel (No Header)` – Chris Latta Nov 05 '13 at 04:57