Installation is quite easy: copy the contents of the Classes folder to any location within your application source directories.
*Example:*
If your web root folder is /var/www/ you may want to create a subfolder called /var/www/Classes/ and copy the files into that folder so you end up with files:
**Note:** It may be necessary to modify the include/require statements at the beginning of each of the test scripts if your "Classes" folder from above is named differently.
There are some links and tools which are very useful when developing using PHPExcel. Please refer to the [PHPExcel CodePlex pages][2] for an update version of the list below.
The up-to-date F.A.Q. page for PHPExcel can be found on [http://www.codeplex.com/PHPExcel/Wiki/View.aspx?title=FAQ&referringTitle=Requirements][7].
##### There seems to be a problem with character encoding...
It is necessary to use UTF-8 encoding for all texts in PHPExcel. If the script uses different encoding then you can convert those texts with PHP's iconv() or mb_convert_encoding() functions.
##### PHP complains about ZipArchive not being found
Make sure you meet all requirements, especially php_zip extension should be enabled.
The ZipArchive class is only required when reading or writing formats that use Zip compression (Xlsx and OOCalc). Since version 1.7.6 the PCLZip library has been bundled with PHPExcel as an alternative to the ZipArchive class.
"Excel found unreadable content in '*.xlsx'. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes."
Some older versions of the 5.2.x php_zip extension on Windows contain an error when creating ZIP files. The version that can be found on [http://snaps.php.net/win32/php5.2-win32-latest.zip][8] should work at all times.
Alternatively, upgrading to at least PHP 5.2.9 should solve the problem.
##### Fatal error: Allowed memory size of xxx bytes exhausted (tried to allocate yyy bytes) in zzz on line aaa
PHPExcel holds an "in memory" representation of a spreadsheet, so it is susceptible to PHP's memory limitations. The memory made available to PHP can be increased by editing the value of the memory_limit directive in your php.ini file, or by using ini_set('memory_limit', '128M') within your code (ISP permitting).
Some Readers and Writers are faster than others, and they also use differing amounts of memory. You can find some indication of the relative performance and memory usage for the different Readers and Writers, over the different versions of PHPExcel, on the [discussion board][9].
If you've already increased memory to a maximum, or can't change your memory limit, then [this discussion][10] on the board describes some of the methods that can be applied to reduce the memory usage of your scripts using PHPExcel.
##### Protection on my worksheet is not working?
When you make use of any of the worksheet protection features (e.g. cell range protection, prohibiting deleting rows, ...), make sure you enable worksheet security. This can for example be done like this:
##### Feature X is not working with PHPExcel_Reader_Y / PHPExcel_Writer_Z
Not all features of PHPExcel are implemented in all of the Reader / Writer classes. This is mostly due to underlying libraries not supporting a specific feature or not having implemented a specific feature.
For example autofilter is not implemented in PEAR Spreadsheet_Excel_writer, which is the base of our Excel5 writer.
We are slowly building up a list of features, together with the different readers and writers that support them, in the "Functionality Cross-Reference.xls" file in the /Documentation folder.
##### Formulas don't seem to be calculated in Excel2003 using compatibility pack?
This is normal behaviour of the compatibility pack, Xlsx displays this correctly. Use PHPExcel_Writer_Excel5 if you really need calculated values, or force recalculation in Excel2003.
[^phpzip_footnote]: __php_zip__ is only needed by __PHPExcel_Reader_Excel2007__, __PHPExcel_Writer_Excel2007__ and __PHPExcel_Reader_OOCalc__. In other words, if you need PHPExcel to handle .xlsx or .ods files you will need the zip extension, but otherwise not.<br/>You can remove this dependency for writing Xlsx files (though not yet for reading) by using the PCLZip library that is bundled with PHPExcel. See the FAQ section of this document for details about this. PCLZip does have a dependency on PHP's zlib extension being enabled.
