While RTF templates in BI Publisher allow reports to be output in multiple formats like PDF and Excel, a common issue is that the Excel output sometimes merges columns, preventing end users from filtering or sorting the data meaningfully. However, there is a setting in the report properties that can be configured to prevent merging of columns. By clicking Edit, then Properties, and checking the appropriate property before saving, the columns will no longer be merged when the report is rerun.

1. Prevent Merging Columns in Excel Output using RTF template
While creatingaBI PublisherReport,we developtemplatesusingRTFtemplate asitprovidesmultiple
outputformatslike Interactive Mode,PDF,XLSX,XML,CSV etc whichare not possible withany other
templateslikeXLS,E-TEXT,etc.
One problemmostof the people face iswhentheytryto downloadthe excel outputusingRTFtemplate,
the excel outputcontainsmergedcolumnsandhence the enduserscannotapplyfiltersandget
meaningful dataout of the output.Here isthe solutionforthe issue.There isasettingavailable inBI
PublisherReportpropertieswhere we cansetthe property.
Afterclickingedit,clickonpropertiesatthe righttop.

2. ClickSave to save the changes.
Once thischange is done,nowrunthe reportagain,thenthe outputwill nothave anymergedcolumns
and the enduserscan happilyfilterorsortthe data.
Hope thishelps.
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