In V7, the process of exporting (most) objects produces an excel file that simply has a link to download a plugin.

There are many reason why this is a horrible idea,

- Requires users install a plugin (a very buggy plugin, that requires administrative privileges, and per-user installation)

- Reliance on Microsoft Excel, in this day an age, with more and more cloud, mobile and OSX/Linux clients, Microsoft Excel is becoming less common (ie, no support for Google Sheets, Libre Office, Microsoft Office Mobile, Microsoft Office 2016/2011 for OSX)

- Requires an extra step in sending documents to 3rd parties outside of the organisation, the user needs to download the "excel" document, open it, (install the plugin), download the data, save it again, then send it externally.

All these problems would be very simply fixed by using proper Excel files, instead Excel files with nothing but a link in them. At this stage, even CSV would be better, at least it give you the data you need, in a usable format (if ugly).

by: Cameron E. | over a year ago | General