KB45523: Formatting changes made in Excel are not retained when the report is Refreshed in MicroStrategy Office

SUMMARY:
This issue has been classified as a defect by Strategy. The impact is limited to Strategy Office 9.4.x product only while refreshing a report. There are no workarounds for this issue and a solution/code fix for this issue is not yet available in a future Strategy release. There are some troubleshooting steps and additional information in the rest of this technote.
 
SYMPTOM:
Formatting changes that are made to a report that has been imported into Excel using Strategy Office 9.4.x are not retained when users refresh the report.
 
STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

• Import a report that contains the Day Attribute using the Strategy Office plug-in for Microsoft Excel, as shown below:
  

• Make formatting changes to the Day attribute when you right-click>Format Cells, as shown below:
  

• Save the Excel File
• Make sure to have the correct settings set as highlighted in KB33900: How to keep the formatting of an existing Excel sheet when updating a report in MicroStrategy Office 9.4.1 and above
• Open the saved Excel File again. Go to the Strategy plug-in>Refresh> Refresh Workbook.
  
• Once you refresh the report, the original format of the Day attribute will appear again and the new formatting changes will not be retained.
   
  

CAUSE:
This is a known defect with Strategy Office 9.4.x. KB33900: How to keep the formatting of an existing Excel sheet when updating a report in MicroStrategy Office 9.4.1 and above explains that users should be allowed to make changes to an Excel file and have those changes retained even after refreshing the report /document that it is based off of. This is after unchecking all options that allows the formatting from reports/documents to be retained. This is an issue with Strategy/Microsoft Office.
  
ACTION:
Please contact Strategy Technical Support for an update on the issue.
 
ADDITIONAL TROUBLESHOOTING:

1. Double-check that the correct settings are enabled in KB33900: How to keep the formatting of an existing Excel sheet when updating a report in MicroStrategy Office 9.4.1 and above explains
2. Check the behavior if you export the report to an Excel format rather than importing it though the Office plug-in.
3. Are there any differences if you Export with Formatting to Excel from Export with plain text?
4. Are there any differences if you Export to an Excel XP/2003 version compared to 2007 or newer version?

 
TO LEARN MORE:

1. Read this technote on how Strategy Office handles formatting of attributes with a format type of Date: KB41220: How MicroStrategy Office 9.2.x and 9.3.0 handle formatting of attributes with a format type of Date
2. KB39255: In MicroStrategy Web 9.2.x, exporting to Excel using the Excel version "Excel 2007 or newer versions" for 'Export Options' in the web preferences, causes dashboards to lose formatting, while "Excel XP/2003" retains the dashboard formatting involves formatting changes in regards to different Excel versions.