Frankly, I have not used propertyExpression tag. 1) I have used following code to rename the sheets. String[] sheetNames ={"Sheet1","Sheet2","Sheet3"}; JExcelApiExporter exporter = new JExcelApiExporter(); exporter.setParameter(JRXlsExporterParameter. sheetNames); SHEET_NAMES 2) Another option is to use iReport for ranaming sheets. There is a property called "Sheet Names" in export options.