How to solve issue with exporting / importing data to and from Excel

Question

Background ( simplified ): When I export data to Excel like

 Export["voorbeeld.xls", {{{0.5, 0.166667}, {0.666667, 
0.166667}, {0.166667, 0.333333}, {0.333333, 0.333333}, {0.5, 
0.333333}, {0.666667, 0.333333}, {0.833333, 0.333333}, {0.166667, 
0.5}, {0.333333, 0.5}, {0.5, 0.5}, {0.666667, 0.5}, {0.833333, 
0.5}, {0.5, 0.666667}, {0.666667, 0.666667}}, {{1., 2., 6., 
5.}, {3., 4., 9., 8.}, {4., 5., 10., 9.}, {5., 6., 11., 10.}, {6.,
 7., 12., 11.}, {10., 11., 14., 
13.}}, {{RGBColor[0.9308155947203784, 0.9308155947203784, 
 0.9308155947203784]}, {RGBColor[1, 0, 0]},    RGBColor[0., 1., 
0.14062714579995422], {RGBColor[1., 0.11317616540779736, 
 0.000015259021896696422]}, {RGBColor[1., 0.9651483939879454, 
 0.38461890592813003]}, {RGBColor[0.9685511558709087, 
 0.9685511558709087, 0.9685511558709087]}}}]

I would expect the data to be inserted into cells but Excels uses just 3 cells. When I imported the same data the three main lists were stored in seperate sheets in Excel.

Example 2:

list3={{RGBColor[0.9308155947203784`,0.9308155947203784`,0.9308155947203784`]},
 {RGBColor[1,0,0]},RGBColor[0.`,1.`,0.14062714579995422`], 
 {RGBColor[1.`,0.11317616540779736`,0.000015259021896696422`]},
 {RGBColor[1.`,0.9651483939879454`,0.38461890592813003`]},
 {RGBColor[0.9685511558709087`,0.9685511558709087`,0.9685511558709087`]}}

Export["voorbeeld.xls",list3] creates a column with RGB values. Export["voorbeeld.xls",{list3}] creates one cell. Does this help?

Question: is there a solution / workaround for this issue?

Example 2:

 list3={{RGBColor[0.9308155947203784`,0.9308155947203784`,0.9308155947203784`]},      {RGBColor[1,0,0]},RGBColor[0.`,1.`,0.14062714579995422`],{RGBColor[1.`,0.11317616540779736`,0.000015259021896696422`]},{RGBColor[1.`,0.9651483939879454`,0.38461890592813003`]},{RGBColor[0.9685511558709087`,0.9685511558709087`,0.9685511558709087`]}}

  Export["voorbeeld.xls",list3] creates a column with RGB values.
  Export["voorbeeld.xls",{list3}] creates one cell.
  Does this help?

Answer 1

The last "sheet" in

data = {{{0.5, 0.166667}, {0.666667, 0.166667}, {0.166667, 
 0.333333}, {0.333333, 0.333333}, {0.5, 0.333333}, {0.666667, 
 0.333333}, {0.833333, 0.333333}, {0.166667, 0.5}, {0.333333, 
 0.5}, {0.5, 0.5}, {0.666667, 0.5}, {0.833333, 0.5}, {0.5, 
 0.666667}, {0.666667, 0.666667}}, {{1., 2., 6., 5.}, {3., 4., 9., 
 8.}, {4., 5., 10., 9.}, {5., 6., 11., 10.}, {6., 7., 12., 
 11.}, {10., 11., 14., 
 13.}}, {{RGBColor[0.9308155947203784, 0.9308155947203784, 
 0.9308155947203784]}, {RGBColor[1, 0, 0]}, 
RGBColor[0., 1., 
 0.14062714579995422], {RGBColor[1., 0.11317616540779736, 
 0.000015259021896696422]}, {RGBColor[1., 0.9651483939879454, 
 0.38461890592813003]}, {RGBColor[0.9685511558709087, 
 0.9685511558709087, 0.9685511558709087]}}}

(i.e. list3) is the source of the problem. If you fix the third element RGBColor[0., 1., 0.14062714579995422] and put {RGBColor[0., 1., 0.14062714579995422]} like you have for the others it exports correctly, which each element of data as a table on its own sheet.

Also, you can always force it to Export sheets, by specifying:

Export["file.xls", data, "Sheets"]