I learned that it is best to use OLEDB as the source for the Data Flow task that fills the spreadsheet via the Excel Destination task. This may seem obvious to many, but I was using an ADONET data source because it helps me elsewhere. Using OLEDB for the Data Flow task really makes the process of identifying data columns, converting them to Unicode and sending them to the Excel Destination task more smooth.

Now if I can figure out how to write the data to row 3 of my spreadsheet. This shouldn't be THAT hard. Microsoft has more wealth than many countries. How come this is so hard to accomplish? Many thanks for anyone who offers the answer.