Files with xls extension are best known as spreadsheets from Microsoft Excel. A spreadsheet is basically a grid of cells sorted in rows and columns. Each cell can contain text, numeric or formula data. Excel XLS spreadsheets can be opened in most other similar programs, such as OpenOffice.org Calc.
Software that open xls file
XLS file extension - Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 workbook
What is xls file? How to open xls files?
File extension xls is associated with Microsoft Excel, one of the most popular and powerful tool you can use to create format spreadsheets, graphs and much more.
The xls files are used in Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 for Workbooks, spreadsheet document files. The XLS is Microsoft Excel's proprietary file format for storing its documents.
Microsoft Excel up until 2007 version used a proprietary binary file format called Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) as its primary format. There are several versions of the format that have been released as it was revised over time.
The latest versions of Microsoft Office use the Open XML file format and the Excel Workbooks are stored in the Microsoft Excel Open XML Workbook files (.xlsx file suffix).
XLS format was also adopted by other programs, such as Microsoft Works. Excel spreadsheets are also generated and exported by various programs. For example SolidWorks uses XLS format to export Bill of Materials templates.
MIME types:
application/excel
application/vnd.ms-excel
application/msexcell
application/x-msexcel
application/x-excel
application/x-msexcel
application/x-dos_ms_excel
application/xls
Updated: April 26, 2025
The default software associated to open xls file:
Company or developer:
Microsoft Corporation
A popular spreadsheet application distributed with Microsoft Office suite, Excel is offers calculating, contains graphing tools, pivot tables and own programming language based on Visual Basic.
Excel supports charts, graphs or histograms generated from specified groups of cells. Excel also can change data between other Microsoft Office applications. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X (macOS) and various mobile platforms.
Company or developer:
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Office is popular productivity suite for Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Office contains a set of applications and services used to work with documents (Microsoft Word), spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel), presentations (Microsoft PowerPoint), databases (Microsoft Access) etc..
Microsoft Office can be also used to manage e-mail accounts, tasks, calendars and contacts (Microsoft Outlook).
Company or developer:
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Excel for Mac is popular spreadsheet application used to analyze, organize and manage data and lists. It is able to create visually rich datasheets and tables with icons, data bars and color scales. Microsoft Excel for Mac is fully compatible with Microsoft Excel for Windows.
Company or developer:
Microsoft Corporation
Office 365 is a subscription-based service that gives users access to several services and apps from Microsoft Office. It is available for some types of subscription editions (Home, Education, Business, and Enterprise users) for Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, and all major mobile platforms.
Office 365 service was replaced by Microsoft 365 subscription service.
List of software applications associated to the .xls file extension
Recommended software programs are sorted by OS platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android etc.)
and possible program actions that can be done with the file: like open xls file, edit xls file, convert xls file, view xls file, play xls file etc. (if exist software for corresponding action in File-Extensions.org's database).
Hint:
Click on the tab below to simply browse between the application actions, to quickly get a list of recommended software, which is able to perform the specified software action, such as opening, editing or converting xls files.
Software that open xls file - Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 workbook
Programs supporting the exension xls on the main platforms Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile. Click on the link to get more information about listed programs for open xls file action.
Microsoft Windows:
Main software associated with xls file by default:
Microsoft Excel
Other suggested software:
Corel Quattro Pro
Apple macOS / Mac OS X:
Main software associated with xls file by default:
Microsoft Excel for Mac
Other suggested software:
Numbers for Mac
