Merged or blank columns when exporting report to excel in ssrs 2008

Question

I have a table in ssrs 2008 like:

What my problem is, when I execute the report and export the output to the excel, I see that there is a mess for the excel columns, and somehow some of the columns are not used, they are blank. Please see the screenshot below to understand better:

I need the table start from Column A in excel, and not merge columns I-J-K. I could not find why this is happening. Any help I would appreciate. Thanks!

Answer 1

When you export to Excel, it tries to honor your layout and make things look the same as they were when you designed it. To get rid of the first column, make sure your table is aligned to the left of the report. In the table properties, you can check the Location measurements to make sure it is 0.

For the columns I, J, and K: that is happening because of other elements on your report such as a header textbox etc. Make sure that the edges of your other items line up with the edges of your cells in this table to avoid those extra columns. When you drag the edge of a cell you should get a blue line when it snaps to other objects. If that doesn't work, sometimes you have to resort to calculating the exact positions and set the Width values manually.