is there a way to export highlighted results in a saved search with excel? pdf is pretty much unusable for this search export

Looks like NetSuite strips all formatting on export

there is an enhancement request for this

Good to know, thank you both!

If you have lots and lots and LOTS of free time you can teach yourself the syntax and format to generate your own XLS file. There are some JS libraries to help you build the node structures needed. I started doing this but had more pressing matters to attend to, to justify my salary.