Although most spreadsheet applications can open CSV files directly, there are a number of advantages to using CSV2XL to create an XLS file. These include:

•   XLS is easier to use for the file recipient. By creating the XLS file under application control, you eliminate the uncertainties and the possible need to answer questions that may arise when the recipient of the file imports it into a spreadsheet application.

•   CSV files cannot contain any formatting whereas XLS files can, and the CSV2XL routine provides various options for automatic and manual formatting to be applied.

•   CSV2XL can automatically highlight the column headers and add column totals.

•   CSV2XL can scroll-lock (aka split) the top line (headers) and/or first column so that they don’t scroll along with the rest of the rows and columns.

•   CSV2XL has logic to properly identify columns that should be treated as strings (left justified, leading zeros retained, e.g. zip codes) whereas the typical CSV importer would treat them as numbers.

•   CSV2XL recognizes dates and converts them to XLS internal date format.

•   CSV2XL automatically sets the column widths appropriately for the data.

•   CSV2XL allows you to specify a default font.

•   The output file name may be serialized with a numeric suffix (eg. abc-1.xls, abc-2.xls, etc.)

•   For more advanced formatting, you can insert //XL directives at the top of the file to specify formats to be applied to individual columns and/or rows.

•   Options are provided for post-processing of the XLS file, such as transferring to the local workstation or launching the spreadsheet application.