>>
>>Are you using SSIS for this? There is a data flow transformation called "data conversion", which allows you to convert from Unicode to non-Unicode.
>>
>>My guess (just a guess) is that your sql tables have some nvarchar columns and the Excel destination is expecting varchar (or vice versa)
>
>Excel expects Unicode and wouldn't accept varchar

You're right, it's the "vice-versa" - thanks. I have two export jobs that write XLS files and never bothered to look if the source data was nvarchar. I was lucky :)