Retain formatting of target template when writing data to Excel

Is there any update about this issue, apart from the "xmlss" workaround?

Is there any update about this issue, apart from the "xmlss" workaround?

One approach we have done is to have a second sheet that has formulas that pulls the data from the sheet that Appian wrote to. We have used macros, etc.  Hope that helps...

It's actually gotten worse now, if anything -- since the official deprecation of CDT to Excel and SQL to Excel in the Excel Tools plugin, there is now apparently no longer any officially-supported way of writing data to an excel sheet with ANY amount of formatting saved.  Previously you could at least preformat columns and add filtering/etc when writing to a template with these smart services.

The officially supported method has now been reduced basically to just the Export Data Store Entity to Excel smart service, and of course this method does not accept an incoming template at all, and even if you have it overwrite a pre-formatted file, all formatting is lost in the resulting document.

(If I'm mistaken in any of this I hope someone will point out where I'm wrong)

Edit: I do like the idea of the approach suggested above by ChristineH - having a "raw data tab" per se, and showing the formatting in an automated manner on the primary tabs, might overcome a bit of the problem of using Export DSE to Excel.  Other than the fact that it still doesn't inherently accept an incoming Excel template.

Hi ChristineH,

I tried your suggestion of using macros. But, when i pass the macro enabled file [.xlsm] as the document to update in Export DSE to Excel it is throwing me an error. 

Any inputs on this will be really helpful.

Also, Mike Schmitt you seem to have been very active on Excel related topics. Your views on this will be much appreciated.

Thanking you guys in advance. Hoping for a solution.

Regards,

Karthik

Try using just formulas and not a macro file