Microsoft Excel

Version365(as of 12/9/2020)
PlatformsWindows, Mac
LicenseCommercial
CategoryProductivity
Go to Website
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Rating:4.1  |  210 Votes

Main Features

  • Support for XLSX and XLS formats, and various other spreadsheet types
  • Basic and advanced data manipulation
  • Processing power for large data sets
  • Can import and export data in many different formats
  • Complex mathematical formula support
  • Advanced support for VBScript scripting
  • Large number of charts and functions

Software Overview

Screenshot of Microsoft Excel 365
Screenshot of Microsoft Excel 365

Microsoft Excel is a widely-used spreadsheet program that is part of the Microsoft Office suite. It provides a powerful feature set for organizing, manipulating, and visualizing data.

Excel workbooks are divided by tabbed worksheets, each of which can be edited independently. Each worksheet contains a two-dimensional grid of cells, which can be formatted in various ways. Excel includes basic features, such as data sorting and simple formula creation, as well as advanced capabilities, such as pivot table reports and VBScript macro scripting. It also provides document security and password protection for data within a workbook. Newer versions of Excel save workbooks in the Office Open XML (OOXML) .XLSX format, while older versions use the proprietary .XLS format.

Excel has many tools that help quickly analyze data. From data import features to automatic sorting, filtering, and pivot tables, users can take large external data sets and gather analyses quickly. The extensive set of mathematical functions also gives the ability to manipulate data and compute results. Excel provides thousands of online templates available for download within the user interface. This gives users many different options for out-of-the-box styling, formatting, and mathematical computation, allowing them to focus on the data rather than extensive amounts of time on presentation. For example, financial templates can be downloaded by home or business users for tracking income, expenses, and transactions, as well as for automatically generating summary graphs.

The spreadsheet application also provides rich tools for visualizing data. Excel supports simple chart types such as bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and scatter plots, as well as more complex ones for more in-depth analysis. These charts can be styled with a variety of visual options.

Microsoft Excel is a great program for your data management needs. Whether you are using it for personal, academic, or professional purposes, you will appreciate Excel’s ability to quickly organize and manipulate data to perform statistical analyses and create visualizations. These reasons among others are what make Excel an industry-standard application.

Primary File Type

xlsx icon.XLSXMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet

Supported File Types

ExtensionFile Type
.XLSXMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet
.CRTXOffice 2007 Chart Template File
.CSVComma-Separated Values File
.EFTXOffice 2007 Theme Effect File
.MHTMHTML Web Archive
.MHTMLMIME HTML File
.ODCOffice Data Connection File
.ODSOpenDocument Spreadsheet
.PRNLotus 1-2-3 Formatted Text File
.SLKSymbolic Link File
.THMXOffice 2007 Theme
.TSVTab-Separated Values File
.UDCXUniversal Data Connection File
.XLMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet
.XLAMicrosoft Excel Add-In File
.XLAMMicrosoft Excel Macro-Enabled Add-In
.XLBMicrosoft Excel Toolbar Settings File
.XLKMicrosoft Excel Backup File
.XLLMicrosoft Excel Add-in
.XLMMicrosoft Excel Macro
.XLRWorks Spreadsheet
.XLSMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet (Legacy)
.XLSBMicrosoft Excel Binary Spreadsheet
.XLSHTMLMicrosoft Excel HTML Spreadsheet
.XLSMMicrosoft Excel Macro-Enabled Spreadsheet
.XLSMHTMLMicrosoft Excel MIME HTML Spreadsheet
.XLSXMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet
.XLTMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet Template (Legacy)
.XLTHTMLMicrosoft Excel HTML Spreadsheet Template
.XLTMMicrosoft Excel Macro-Enabled Spreadsheet Template
.XLTXMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet Template
.XLWMicrosoft Excel Workspace
.XMLXML File

Additional Related File Types

ExtensionFile Type
.AWAnswer Wizard File
.BMPBitmap Image
.DATAAnalysis Studio Offline Data File
.DELDelimited ASCII File
.DEXMicrosoft Excel Spreadsheet
.DIBDevice-Independent Bitmap Image
.DICPROOFMicrosoft Dictionary Proofing File
.DIFData Interchange Format
.DOCMicrosoft Word Document (Legacy)
.DQYMicrosoft Excel Query
.EMFEnhanced Windows Metafile
.EXDControl Information Cache File
.GIFGraphical Interchange Format File
.GRAMicrosoft Graph File
.HTMHypertext Markup Language File
.IIFIntuit Interchange Format File
.IQYInternet Query
.JPEGJPEG Image
.JPGJPEG Image
.OLBOLE Object Library
.RDFReport Definition File
.RELSOpen Office XML Relationships File
.RLERun Length Encoded Bitmap
.SHSMicrosoft Scrap File
.SKVSemicolon Separated Values File
.TABTab Separated Data File
.TDLTab Delineated Format File
.TSVTab-Separated Values File
.TXTPlain Text File
.UDFMicrosoft Excel User-defined Function
.WMFWindows Metafile
.WPGWordPerfect Graphic
.WQ1Quattro Pro for DOS Spreadsheet File
.XLWMicrosoft Excel Workbook
Updated 12/9/2020