.xls files
.xls file
Excel Workbook (legacy binary)
The pre-2007 Excel format, limited to 65,536 rows.
What opens a .xls file
- Windows
- Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, WPS Office
- macOS
- Microsoft Excel, Numbers (built in), LibreOffice Calc
- Linux
- LibreOffice Calc, OnlyOffice, Gnumeric
- In a browser
- Google Sheets, Excel for the web
What a .xls file is
XLS is the old binary Excel format from Office 97 through 2003, still produced by plenty of accounting and banking systems that were written back then. Its 65,536-row ceiling is the classic cause of silently truncated exports. Excel and LibreOffice still open it, but converting to XLSX removes the row limit and the security warnings that come with legacy binary Office files.
Converting it
A .xls file is commonly converted to .xlsx, .csv, .pdf or .ods. It is a binary format, so a text editor will show unreadable characters rather than its contents.
Details
- Extension
- .xls
- Full name
- Excel Workbook (legacy binary)
- Category
- Documents
- MIME type
- application/vnd.ms-excel
- Created by
- Microsoft
- Format
- Binary
Common questions
- How do I open a .xls file?
- On Windows use Microsoft Excel; on macOS use Microsoft Excel; on Linux use LibreOffice Calc. The pre-2007 Excel format, limited to 65,536 rows.
- What is a .xls file?
- Excel Workbook (legacy binary). XLS is the old binary Excel format from Office 97 through 2003, still produced by plenty of accounting and banking systems that were written back then. Its 65,536-row ceiling is the classic cause of silently truncated exports.
- Can I convert a .xls file?
- Yes. It is usually converted to .xlsx, .csv, .pdf or .ods, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.
Related pages
- .pdf — Portable Document Format A fixed-layout document that looks identical everywhere — the format for anythin
- .docx — Word Document (Open XML) The standard Word document since Office 2007 — a zip archive of XML underneath.
- .xlsx — Excel Workbook (Open XML) The standard Excel spreadsheet since 2007, with a million-row limit per sheet.
- .pptx — PowerPoint Presentation (Open XML) The standard PowerPoint deck since 2007.
- .txt — Plain Text File Text with no formatting at all — the format that will still open in fifty years.
- .doc — Word Document (legacy binary) The pre-2007 Word format — still readable, but Microsoft would rather you conver
- .ppt — PowerPoint Presentation (legacy binary) The pre-2007 PowerPoint format.
- .md — Markdown Document Plain text with a light formatting convention — headings with #, bold with **.
- .rtf — Rich Text Format A formatted document format readable by every word processor since 1987.
- .pages — Apple Pages Document Apple's word processor format — Apple devices and iCloud only.
- .odt — OpenDocument Text The open-standard word processor format, native to LibreOffice.
- .eml — Email Message A single saved email, headers and all, in the standard internet message format.
Sources
- Media Types Registry — IANA
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place