http://www.codepal.co.uk/show/Line_breaks_lost_and_br_tags_show_when_exporting_to_Excel_file
Protected Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
Dim dt As New DataTable
dt.Columns.Add(New DataColumn("Text1", GetType(System.String)))
Dim dr As DataRow = dt.NewRow
dr.Item("Text1") = String.Format("This is line one{0}This is line two{0}This is line three", "<br/>")
dt.Rows.Add(dr)
Response.Clear()
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=exported.xls")
Response.AddHeader("Pragma", "public")
Response.AddHeader("Cache-Control", "max-age=0")
Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8
Dim gvEx As New GridView
gvEx.AutoGenerateColumns = True
gvEx.AllowSorting = False
gvEx.AllowPaging = False
Dim sw As New System.IO.StringWriter
Dim hw As New System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter(sw)
gvEx.DataSource = dt
gvEx.DataBind()
hw.AddAttribute("xmlns:x", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel") ' optional'
hw.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Html)
hw.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Head)
hw.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.