I've finally gotten around to releasing v1.0 of the php-excel extension, the list of changes for this release is quite substantial:
	* Fixed issue #63 writing for NULL values using writeRow()
	* Added excel.skip_empty INI setting that allows null values to be skipped, if set to 2 the empty strings will be skipped as well
	* Added Sheet::setRightToLeft() and Sheet::setRightToLeft() methods that specifies whether the sheet in is "right to left" display mode
	* Added Book::isTemplate() and Book::setTemplate() methods for detecting xltx files and converting from xlsx to xltx and vice versa
	* Fixed compilation with LibXL 3.5.4
	* Added optional scope parameter to setNamedRange()/delNamedRange()/getNamedRange() methods
	* Updated getNamedRange()/getIndexRange() methods to retrieve hidden state
	* Added parameter to readRow/readCol/read methods that specifiy whether to parse formula or its value.
	* Added ExcelBook::packDateValues() method for generating Excel date value
	* Added ExcelBook::setPrintArea() method for setting print area
	* Fixed parsing of non-numeric formulas inside read() method
	* Fixed parameter processing inside ExcelSheet::getVerPageBreak()/getHorPageBreak() methods
	* Fixed parameter order inside ExcelSheet::getNamedRange()/getIndexRange() methods
	* Fixed return value processing inside ExcelBook::setActiveSheet() method
The release can be downloaded from 
here and the source code is available at: 
https://github.com/iliaal/php_excel