Hello there, I'm trying to export a list of Jira issues in an Excel file. However, I cannot find the proper method to make them look properly formatted. I'll try to recap my steps as well as detail my needs, so that it might be easier to find a proper solution. * enter Jira software development project * enter issues subsection * select 2+ issues (same type) * click on "export" * select any of those results (.csv, excel csv etc) that is compatible with Excel The "my default CSV" export for example is: * good because it keeps fields following up one another just like they were following columns...but * bad because they don't. They're all "pasted" inside the first column. The "all fields CSV" export does not meet my needs. I need that every issue field is represented in a column. However it might seem that either one of these would apply: * this is not supported; * I'm not skilled enough to operate the excel file properly (perfectly legit); * I'm doing something wrong; * there's some other hidden problem. Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi @Giulio Pengo , as @Dan Breyen stated, it's downloaded as CSV file. Sometimes Excel is smart enough to format it into columns itself, but sometimes not. When the same thing happens to me, I'm gladly taking a shortcut that Excel provides for such situations. Open the file and if it looks like in your screenshot (everything in the first column) and proceed like this: * Click on the header of the first column (The A) so that the full column is selected * Click on the "Data" tab in Excel * Click on the "Text to Columns" button: * This now opens the "Convert Text to Columns Wizard"* Select "Delimited" and click Next * Select the correct Delimiter (usually Comma or Semicolon). You know you've selected the right one when the preview at the bottom shows your values properly listed in Columns. * (Optional) Click Next if you want to defined Formats for some Columns * Click Finish You should now have your values properly formatted into Columns. Greetings Philipp

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Jira issues export in Excel - Formatting

Giulio Pengo_q66yln

Hello there,

I'm trying to export a list of Jira issues in an Excel file.

However, I cannot find the proper method to make them look properly formatted.

I'll try to recap my steps as well as detail my needs, so that it might be easier to find a proper solution.

enter Jira software development project
enter issues subsection
select 2+ issues (same type)
click on "export"
select any of those results (.csv, excel csv etc) that is compatible with Excel

The "my default CSV" export for example is:

good because it keeps fields following up one another just like they were following columns...but
bad because they don't. They're all "pasted" inside the first column.

Screenshot 2025-03-19 162056.png

The "all fields CSV" export does not meet my needs.

Screenshot 2025-03-19 161751.png

I need that every issue field is represented in a column.

However it might seem that either one of these would apply:

this is not supported;
I'm not skilled enough to operate the excel file properly (perfectly legit);
I'm doing something wrong;
there's some other hidden problem.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Accepted answers

Philipp Sendek

Hi @Giulio Pengo ,

as @Dan Breyen stated, it's downloaded as CSV file. Sometimes Excel is smart enough to format it into columns itself, but sometimes not.

When the same thing happens to me, I'm gladly taking a shortcut that Excel provides for such situations. Open the file and if it looks like in your screenshot (everything in the first column) and proceed like this:

Click on the header of the first column (The A) so that the full column is selected
Click on the "Data" tab in Excel
Click on the "Text to Columns" button:
This now opens the "Convert Text to Columns Wizard"
- Select "Delimited" and click Next
- Select the correct Delimiter (usually Comma or Semicolon). You know you've selected the right one when the preview at the bottom shows your values properly listed in Columns.
- (Optional) Click Next if you want to defined Formats for some Columns
- Click Finish

You should now have your values properly formatted into Columns.

Greetings
Philipp

All comments

Dan Breyen

Hi @Giulio Pengo from your exported data, it looks like the data is properly formatted as a CSV file with the data separated with a comma. If you load excel, and open your CSV (outside of Jira) do you get a Text Import Wizard? If so, and you walk through the wizard, it should let you select 'comma' as a delimiter, and when you finish, it should open the file in Excel with the proper columns.

I can't read your first screenshot, as the words are too small. I'm gathering that's your data displayed, with the fields separated by a comma.

When I double click on a CSV file, it's automatically sorting the columns for me, but I would guess if you can get to that Text Import Wizard, you'll be good to go.

Hope that helps.

Philipp Sendek

Deleted because of a double post as the first answer didn't show up after posting. :-)

Philipp Sendek

Click on the header of the first column (The A) so that the full column is selected
Click on the "Data" tab in Excel
Click on the "Text to Columns" button:
This now opens the "Convert Text to Columns Wizard"
- Select "Delimited" and click Next
- Select the correct Delimiter (usually Comma or Semicolon). You know you've selected the right one when the preview at the bottom shows your values properly listed in Columns.
- (Optional) Click Next if you want to defined Formats for some Columns
- Click Finish

You should now have your values properly formatted into Columns.

Greetings
Philipp

Giulio Pengo_q66yln

Hi Dan, thank you for your help!

It appears that the problem is on the Excel side - which I never used - not on the Jira side. Therefore it was probably a mistake to open this ticket.

Your suggestion didn't work unfortunately, but it helped me think of a workaround. Here's what I did next:

uploaded the file on google drive
opened it with Google Sheets
1. formatting was correct already
downloaded it in .xls.
opened it in Excel
1. formatting was correct

This worked, while simply saving the file in .xlsx format from inside Excel did not help in fixing the problem.

Guess this can be closed.

Thank you for your help @Dan Breyen , really appreciated!

Giulio Pengo_q66yln

It worked great, thanks Philipp!

Philipp Sendek _catworkx_

Hi @Giulio Pengo

perfect, glad it worked!

There's actually a second - even more hidden - easier way to get a real Excel file from your results:

Select Export -> Export HTML report (either of the two available options)
Change the file extension of this resulting *.html file to *.xls (caution: Not xlsx)

When you open that file in Excel now, it is a beautiful table including Header graphic, name of the filter and your results neatly in columns.

Greetings
Philipp

Giulio Pengo_q66yln

Very nice, this works fine as well!

Aron Gombas _Midori_

@Giulio Pengo CSV, being a plain text format, can fail like this. Encoding of special characters can be problematic, too. Type of the values can be also a problem, in CSV everything is just text.

All these can be fixed with manual work, but if you are open to trying an app, our Better Excel Exporter app exports real XLSX files, files in the native spreadsheet format. The aforementioned problems simply cannot occur with this approach.

(Discl. it is a paid and supported app developed by our team. Free for 10 users!)

Giulio Pengo_q66yln

Good to know, we'll check it out and consider this as an addition for the team, thanks!

Andreas Kemper_8h9ltw

This works as long as you do not use a comma in any text field.
If you do did, Excel cannot separate the columns correctly.

Natalia_Kovalchuk_SaaSJet_

Hi @Giulio Pengo!

Jira’s native CSV exports are very basic and are not Excel-friendly.

If you need to export a list of Jira tasks on a regular basis and can consider the option of using third-party apps, I can recommend you try Issue History for Jira app provided by SaaSJet team.

The app lets you generate analysis-ready Excel files with full change history, comments, and user actions. It is even possible to track and export deleted tasks if needed.

You can select the required tasks using filters, date ranges, and columns, and export them in minutes.

All the data will look properly formatted in Excel.

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