# Improved Excel crosstab export

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2020-08-12
- **Format:** Video · 4 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Productivity
- **Tools:** Excel; Tableau (cloud, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/improved-excel-crosstab-export-in-tableau-2020-3
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/MOrLPhstFN0

I walk through the improved Excel crosstab export introduced in Tableau 2020.3, which lets you export to Excel format from Web Authoring, Tableau Online or Server rather than just CSV. I demonstrate how it preserves much more of the Tableau formatting and layout, including merged fields, compared with the older CSV approach.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau 2020.3 adds native Excel crosstab export from Web Authoring, Tableau Online and Server, where previously only CSV was available.
- The Excel export preserves much more of the Tableau layout and formatting, including merged fields, than the old CSV route.
- When you trigger a crosstab export you're prompted to choose which specific sheet to export from, a refinement from the 2020.2 release.
- Some formatting such as conditional formatting on figures can still be lost in the export.
- Web editing offers limited formatting control, so heavy formatting like header styling is still best handled in Tableau Desktop.

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/improved-excel-crosstab-export-in-tableau-2020-3

---
just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena