KB42959: "Desktop is unable to export to Excel. Specified worksheet may have merged cells in the area to which the report is being exported" error message appears when exporting a report to Excel 2013 in MicroStrategy Developer 9.4.1.

SYMPTOM:
In Strategy Developer 9.4.1, the following error message appears when exporting a report to Excel 2013, as shown below:

Desktop is unable to export to Excel. Specified worksheet may have merged cells in the area to which the report is being exported.

1. Install Microsoft Office 2013 on the machine along with Strategy Desktop.
2. In Strategy Desktop, create a simple report with any attributes or metrics.
3. In the report created at step 1, go to Menu -> Data -> Export To -> MS Excel and export it to Excel format.
4. Note that the issue happens.

 
CAUSE:
 This is a known issue with Strategy Developer 9.4.x.
 
ACTION:
This issue has been fixed in Strategy Developer 9.5.x and 10.x. Upgrade to this version to take advantage of the fix.
 
WORKAROUND:
Open the MS Excel 2013 before exporting. Exporting progress will succeed when there is a MS Excel application running.
The Strategy Internal Reference Number for the issue discussed in this technical note is 729250.