How to Open an XLS File in Excel. XLS files are Excel workbook files created in Excel 97 or Excel 2003. The 2007, 2010 and 2013 versions of the program use the XLSX format by default to save ...

There are a couple of ways to have Excel open most conveniently for you.

Don't manually re-enter data you find on the Web. Open Excel and transfer the data directly into a worksheet.