I checked the "writemany.pl" example and found it easier to achieve my goal by writing just a "formatmany" method. Eventually what I really need is formatting in one go with predefined formats.

Below is the code I have so far (work in progress!)

The problem I have with this - the format doesn't seem to have any effect in the resulting file no matter what style settings I select. Perhaps some monk sees the problem I can't find ...

Thanks for your time, Axel.

#!perl -l015
use strict;

use Spreadsheet::WriteExcel;

my ( @arr, @format, $rows, $cols );

@arr = (
    [ "a11", "12", "a13" ],
    [ "a21", "22", "a23" ],
    [ "a31", "32", "a33" ],
);

my $outputfile = "output.xls";
my $workbook   = Spreadsheet::WriteExcel->new($outputfile);
my $worksheet  = $workbook->addworksheet("a test");
my $number     = $workbook->addformat(
    font       => "Helvetica",
    size       => 18,
    num_format => "000000.00",
    align      => "right",
);
my $string = $workbook->addformat(
    font  => "Helvetica",
    size  => 18,
    align => "left",
    bold  => 1,
);

@format = ( [ $string, $number, $string ] );

$worksheet->writemany( 0, 0, \@arr );
$worksheet->formatmany(@format);

$workbook->close();

chomp( my $pwd = `pwd` );
my $file = $pwd . $outputfile;
$^O =~ /Mac/ and MacPerl::DoAppleScript( <<eos );
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    open "$file"
    activate
end tell
eos

package Spreadsheet::WriteExcel::Worksheet;

sub formatmany {
    my ( $self, @format ) = @_;
    my ( $rows, $cols )   = $self->checkdim(@format);
    print "DEBUG: got ( $rows, $cols ) format elements";
    return if $cols == 0 or $rows == 0;

    # colums only
    if ( $rows == 1 ) {
        print "DEBUG: setting columns only";
        for ( 0 .. $cols - 1 ) {
            my $colformat = $format[0]->[$_];
            die "no format object found"
              unless ref $colformat eq
              "Spreadsheet::WriteExcel::Format";
            $self->set_column( $_, $_, 20, $colformat );
        }
    }
    elsif ( $cols == 0 ) {
        # yadda-yadda ... $self->set_row();
    }
    else {
        # yadda-yadda ...
    }
}

sub writemany {
    my ( $self, $row, $col, $ref, $options ) = @_;

    # If this is an arrayref, go through it
    if ( ref($ref) eq "ARRAY" ) {

        # Work out the direction we're going
        my $direction = $options->{direction} || "row";

        # Work out the converse direction
        my $otherdirection = {
            row => "col",
            col => "row"
        }->{$direction};

        # Cycle through
        for (@$ref) {
            $self->writemany(
                $row,
                $col,
                $_,
                {
                    direction => $otherdirection,
                    format    => $options->{format} || undef
                }
            );
            $direction eq "row" ? $row++ : $col++;
        }
    }
    else {

        # It's a simple scalar value (or something that we don't
        # handle), so pass it through to write
        $self->write( $row, $col, $ref,
            $options->{format} );
    }
}

sub checkdim {
    my ( $self, @arr ) = @_;
    my $rows = 0;
    for (@arr) { $rows++ }
    my $maxcols = 0;
    for ( 0 .. $rows - 1 ) {
        my $row  = $_;
        my $cols = 0;
        for ( 0 .. $#{ $arr[$row] } ) { $cols++ }
        $maxcols = $cols > $maxcols ? $cols : $maxcols;
    }
    return ( $rows, $maxcols );
}
[download]

(please change #!perl -l015 for your needs, I'm on MacPerl in the moment, writemany() taken from John's example)

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