ODS Output to Excel on Mac

[RH_JTE]

Hi.  Has anyone successfully identified a way to output multi-tab reports that are readable by *Mac* Excel 2010?  The output we currently generate using the ExcelXP tagset works great for PC Excel but fails on the Mac.  Our end users are switching to Macs and I'm looking for an alternative to having them access a shared windows server just to open reports.

JT

[Reeza]

Can you convert the files to native Excel files first?

Here's the code sample from SAS that does it.

http://support.sas.com/kb/43/496.html

[RH_JTE]

Thanks for the idea.  I took a look through the code and example.  It appears that the VBS script generated simply automates the process of opening the files in Excel and saving them back out.  Since this involves opening the XML files in Excel, it seems that this might work from a PC but not from a Mac, so I'm seemingly back still stuck at square one.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:

  very odd...that implies that Office on the Mac doesn't read/render the Spreadsheet ML designed for Office 2003. That seems strange. I wonder whether Microsoft has published a plug-in??? I'd recommend that you check with Tech Support or Google on Office 2003 plug-in for the MAC.

cynthia

[RH_JTE]

SAS Tech Support indicated they're aware the ExcelXP tagset creates files that Mac Excel 2010 can't read.  Unfortunately they didn't have any fixes or suggestions for getting around it.  I was thinking perhaps someone else had encounted this and found a creative solution.  For now I'll try Googling for an Office plug-in or patch as you recommended.  Thanks.

[Reeza]

Do you mean Office for Mac 201? I thought there was a 2008 and a 2011 version of office for mac, not a 2010 one.

Or is there something else that you're doing to get office 2010 on the macs?

[RH_JTE]

Apologies, you are correct.  It's the 2011 version.

[Cynthia_sas]

I just found this, but am not is a position to try it. It does not explicitly say that it deals with Office 2003 format of XML:

http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Open-XML-Converter/3000-18483_4-146736.html

cynthia

[RH_JTE]

I just tried installing.  Unfortunately it shows errors when trying to access the files, claiming they're not in a valid format.