Import Sourcing Event - Excel 97-2003 limitation

Hi,

is there any way or trick how to have more the 256 terms in the Ariba event if we integrate via Web Service Import Sourcing Event and still use the Excel 97-2003 format? We faced this limitation in Excel 97-2003 when we were preparing Pricing sheet where terms/attributes are defined as Excel columns and this Excel version supports max. 256 columns.

We would like to use this Excel version for some time until we migrate to a new integration broker but at the same time we want to provide new terms in existing events (>256).

Btw. The 'Import Content from Excel' function in Ariba is still using the Excel 97-2003 format?

Thank you,

Rosta.