A nice trick you can do here is to make use of the fact that Excel can open HTML files.
Try this: Make your report in HTML as usual (probably just a bit simpler on the design side), save the source from your browser, rename the file to ".xls" and see how it looks in Excel. Chances are that it looks better than what you could achieve (without a lot of effort) trying to write a CSV or XLS.
If you like what you see, have your download.cgi serve this HTML file with these headers:
Content-type: application/vnd.ms-excel
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=report.xls
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Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
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<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
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Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
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Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
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