Convert Excel to XLS
Ethical Tube's free Excel to XLS converter turns Excel spreadsheets into XLS, the legacy Excel spreadsheet format, using LibreOffice, the open-source office suite. It runs entirely in your browser, so your spreadsheets are never uploaded, and it's free with no sign-up or watermark. The first conversion downloads the LibreOffice engine (77 MB) once, and it's cached after that.
Files are converted on your device and never uploaded.
- Price
- Free
- Uploads
- None, it runs on your device
- Sign-up
- Not needed
- Batch
- Unlimited files
- Output
- XLS
- First use
- 77 MB download, once
How it works
How to convert Excel to XLS
Add your Excel files
Drop Excel files onto the converter, click to choose them, or paste from the clipboard. Add as many as you like.
Check the settings
XLS is already selected. The first time, confirm the one-time download of the document engine.
Download your XLS spreadsheets
Each file gets its own download button as soon as it's ready. Download all saves everything in one ZIP file.
The formats
Excel and XLS at a glance
What is an Excel file?
XLSX is the workbook format Microsoft Excel has used since 2007. A workbook can hold several sheets with formulas, formatting, charts, and filters, and it's the standard way spreadsheets are shared at work. It opens in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice Calc, and WPS Office.
What is an XLS file?
XLS is the binary spreadsheet format Excel used before 2007. It's limited to 65,536 rows and 256 columns per sheet and opens in compatibility mode in current Excel, but many older systems and bank exports still produce it. It opens in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, and WPS Office.
Good to know
What changes when you convert Excel to XLS
- Text, formatting, tables, and images carry over to XLS.
- XLS is a legacy format, so features newer than Office 2003 may be simplified.
- XLS sheets are limited to 65,536 rows and 256 columns.
- The first conversion downloads LibreOffice compiled to WebAssembly (77 MB). It's cached, so later visits start quickly.
- Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text may appear in a fallback font.
- Password-protected documents can't be converted.
- It works best on a computer, because LibreOffice needs a lot of memory.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Is this Excel to XLS converter free?
Yes. It's completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark, and no limit on how many files you convert. It costs Ethical Tube nothing to run, because the conversion happens on your own device rather than on a server.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion runs inside your browser with LibreOffice compiled to WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device. Once the page and the engine have loaded, it even works offline.
Why is there a download the first time?
The conversion uses LibreOffice, the open-source office suite, compiled to run inside your browser. It's about 77 MB, downloads once from Ethical Tube's own server, and is cached for next time. Your documents are never uploaded.
Can I convert several Excel files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like. They're converted one after another, and you can download each XLS file as soon as it's ready or all of them in one ZIP file.
Does it work on iPhone, Android, Mac, and Windows?
It works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari, but it's built for computers. LibreOffice needs about 1 GB of memory, which many phones can't spare.
What can open an XLS file?
Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, and WPS Office.
Is there a file size limit?
There's no upload limit because nothing is uploaded. The practical limit is your device's memory: everyday files are fine, and most computers handle documents with hundreds of pages.
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