I suppose the starting point really is to answer the question, "What do I want to do with the data in Excel?"
? look at it in a spreadsheet view? - EpiData Analysis can do this (Browse) ? do some simple calculations on some fields? - EpiData Analysis can do this ? do some really complicated calculations on some fields? - just export some key identifying fields and the fields you need into Excel and merge the results back into your EpiData file ? do some special analysis that is only available in Excel? - same idea, but I can't think of any that would use very many fields ? create a database that will support mail-merge ? - you won't need many fields for this
If your boss has a fixation on an old version of Excel, then you are limited to exporting 256 fields (columns). Excel 2010 or newer can handle over 16,000 columns
Jamie
thank you very much! I tried to suggest that to my boss but she is not convinced yet. Are there any other possibilities available?