How to Fix Excel Merged Columns in Cognos Report Studio

The Cognos default output is ‘HTML’. When we design a report in Report Studio, not only in HTML format, but also in Excel and PDF, the report output should be good. Most of the time when we export to Excel, we experience Merged Cell issues in Excel. Hence it is difficult for the user to sort and filter the records.

To avoid this issue, we found a work around. We can apply a fixed width in Cognos Reports.

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Size and Overflow: Increase the column width

Steps to apply Size and Overflow in Report column:
We should apply size and overflow in each text item within the column body. Hence we will not get any merged column issues in Excel and standard width across all reports.
Recently we found there should be an Admin setting to resolve the issues properly.

Steps below for admin setting:
– in IBM Cognos Administration portal, click on the Status tab then click System on the left menu
– Click on the blue arrow next to System (in Scorecard part) and choose set Properties
– Click on the Settings tab
– on Advanced settings click Edit…

Then add this parameter:
Parameter column:
RSVP.EXCEL.XLS2007_COLUMN_WIDTH_CONTROL
Value column:
TRUE