How can I modify column width in a spreadsheet report without using an Excel template

Question

I currently use the LabVIEW Report Generation toolkit in LabVIEW 2011SP1 to create simple spreadsheet reports that I can build/print without having Microsoft Office products installed.  I really like being able to do this, and it allows me to generate nice on-demand data reports - I'm also not tied to having Office installed on the system I'm using, so this works on just about any test fixture I can install the software on.  
I recently have a requirement that I must have variable-length columns in my report.  I currently use the VI "Append Text Table to Report" in order to create a text table, but the column width requirement is that all columns must be equal width UNLESS I use an Excel Template file to define my column widths.  
My questions are:
Is it possible to create a text table and define per-column widths without using an Excel Template?  If so, how?  My report mainly has a lot of small numerical values for the columns, but some columns contain system names or status messages - I really hate the longer text blocks wrapping and taking up so much real-estate when if I could control the column widths I can get all my data on a single line.
I'll admit I haven't tried this myself yet, but if I use an Excel Template will that require me to have Excel installed on the PC in order to print/generate reports?
Is there a recommended way (with an example) of generating a text table in a report with or without using the "Append Text Table to Report" VI that allows me to have custom column widths that doesn't require me to manually build a custom print page?  If I do have to create a custom print page, what would be the most straightforward approach?
Thanks!
-Danny

Answer 1

Sure, I'll provide a pared down example that demonstrates my use-case:
I have a control to the VI that takes in a 2D array of strings representing the data I want printed in a table.  I am generating a standard report, adding a table to the report, and printing it.  The first VI is "New Report.vi", the second VI is "Append Table to Report.vi", and the third is "Print Report.vi", all found standard in the Report Generation palette.
Note that the "Append Table to Report.vi" has an input parameter "Column Width" with a default value of (1).  This input parameter is a single input parameter, which defines the column widths of ALL the columns in my table - hence, with the VI the way it is, all my columns will be 1 inch wide.  
I find myself needing to be able to define per-column widths, not just a single global column width parameter.  
The only way I have found to do this is by using an Excel template file.  The "New Report.vi" takes in a "template" parameter, and if used, the report generation toolkit can be set to ignore the "Column Width" input parameter on the "Append Table to Report.vi" by setting the width value to -1.  Instead it will launch Excel, open the template file provided, build the table using the template, will close Excel, and will attach the generated table to the report.  However, I have a strict requirement that Microsoft Office NOT be required to be installed on the computer.  
So, without using Excel, is there a way to generate a table in a report and define the width of each column individually?
-Danny