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How to Control the Column Width of Sub Reports in a Master Report when Exporting to Excel

  • August 4, 2026
  • 1 reply
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I'm using a Master report to display two sub reports side by side.(see attached)
I know I can use Excel-Manual mode to set the column width for each report, which works fine when applied to a single report. However, once I switch the master report's export mode from excel-auto to excel-manual, the two sub reports, which previously displayed correctly in Excel, become misaligned.
 

Like below
row 1 sub report1 c1, sub report1 c2
row n............................................................... sub report2 c1, sub report2 c2
It's as if sub report1 finishes printing completely before sub report2 starts printing on the next line.

They display correctly, line by line, in PDF.

If I switch back to excel auto, they display correctly in Excel on the same line, like this:
row1 :sub report1 c1, sub report1 c2, sub report2 c1, sub report2 c2

However, in auto mode, the columns are too wide, and the user doesn't want to manually adjust them every time. What should I do?

Best answer by FarhanaM60

This is a limitation of the Excel export engine. In Excel Manual mode, side-by-side subreports are exported as separate blocks, so they don't stay aligned like they do in PDF. Excel Auto preserves the layout but doesn't allow fixed column widths. Unfortunately, there isn't a built-in way to get both behaviors together. The usual workaround is to redesign the report to avoid side-by-side subreports or create a separate report optimized for Excel export.

1 reply

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  • Captain II
  • Answer
  • August 5, 2026

This is a limitation of the Excel export engine. In Excel Manual mode, side-by-side subreports are exported as separate blocks, so they don't stay aligned like they do in PDF. Excel Auto preserves the layout but doesn't allow fixed column widths. Unfortunately, there isn't a built-in way to get both behaviors together. The usual workaround is to redesign the report to avoid side-by-side subreports or create a separate report optimized for Excel export.