Free Excel Viewer

Have you ever stuck in such a situation where you need to open Excel file urgently but the absence of proper Excel Application on your device denies opening it?

Don’t get worried because from today onwards you can easily open Excel files without Excel. You all must be thinking is it really possible to open xls/xlsx file without Excel.

Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 8.1. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for XLSX Viewer Free. Free Excel Viewer can be used to view Excel XLSX/XLS files without having Microsoft Excel software. Besides saving the opened Excel file as XLSX format, Free Excel Viewer also allows you to export and convert Excel files to PDF, HTML, ODS, XPS, SVG and XML formats.

Yes, there are so many Alternative Options available to Open Excel Files Without Excel even if you don’t have a proper MS Excel Applications program on your device.

In this article, I have outlined some best and easiest ways to open Excel workbook without Excel.

Let’s know about each of the options one by one.

How To Open Excel File Without Excel?

1. Using Chrome Browser’s Free Extension

You can open XLS/XLSX file easily in your Chrome browser just by using a free extension.

Steps To Add Extension:

Go to your chrome browser “setting” and then tap to the “extensions”
Now in the extension widow search for this “Office Editing For Docs, Sheets And Slides”
Once you get this extension, click the option “add to chrome”.
Within a few minutes, the extension will get added to your chrome browser.

Now you can open and edit any of your Online XLS files without even downloading them to your PC.

Besides that, you can also view and operate an Excel file that is already present on your PC. For this, you just need to drag them into your chrome browser.

Or else, you can click on this Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides – Google chrome.

2. Excel Viewer

The second option is to use Microsoft’s own Excel viewer this can be used for viewing your older (.xls) or newer (.xlsx) file format Excel spreadsheets.

You have to download this application, its download file size is 74 Megabytes. Excel viewer also uses the same core which is used by Microsoft Excel application. This ensures Excel viewer application good compatibility with any version of Excel spreadsheets.

Here is the link to download Microsoft Excel Viewer.

How To Use Microsoft Excel Viewer

After downloading the Microsoft Excel Viewer app, run it on your device.
You will see that an “Open” window automatically gets open on your screen.
Choose your XLS file which you want to edit through the “browse” option.
Tap the “Open” option this will open your selected XLS file in the Microsoft Excel Viewer.

3. Apache OpenOffice

Open office is counted as an alternative to the Microsoft Office program. With this free Apache OpenOffice suite program, users can open MS Office documents of any format.

In this Apache OpenOffice application, for opening an Excel file at first you need to open the “calc” module. This supports all older and newer version Excel documents.

To download Apache OpenOffice, Click Here.

Steps to useOpenOffice:

After downloading the OpenOfficeapp, run it on your device.
Now press ctrl+ o as this will open the “Open” window on your screen.
Make a selection for the XLS file you need to edit from the integrated browser option.
At the end tap to “Open” Your selected XLS file will now seem open in the OpenOffice program.

4. Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

Those who all are having the previous version of MS Office or MS Excel already installed on their PC. They can use the Microsoft Office compatibility pack for adding extra support for xlsx file format. So that spreadsheet of xlsx format (newer version) can easily be optimized in older version Excel application.

To download the Microsoft Office compatibility pack Click Here.

5. XLS Viewer 2.30

Another very tiny option to open Excel file without Excel is using XLS Viewer 2.30.

I have called it “tiny” because XLS Viewer 2.30 is a tiny size app of about 1 MB. Though it’s tiny but works very exciting.

You can use this application for an opening, viewing, or printing of xls/xlsx spreadsheets which are created using Open Office or Microsoft Office program.

Note: this program shows a slight issue to display complex Excel spreadsheets perfectly.

6. Google Docs

Many of you don’t even know that Google Docs has now started supporting the Excel 2007 xlsx format.

Previously, this online service only supports Excel Xls documents. But after the enhancement of the new features, it becomes to easy to work with any Excel file version in Google Docs.

To start using your Excel Spreadsheet with Google Docs Click Here.

7. Zoho Sheets

Another very smart option to open Excel file without Excel is using the free zoho sheet tool. Zoho doesn’t ask you to make any user account to work with Excel spreadsheet if you use it’s “online Excel viewer option”. But if you need to create a new Excel file then you need to Sign up first.

Only you need to upload your Excel file to this website and then you can start doing changes in it.

Either you can save your modified Excel sheet in your online account or in your computer. As it allows both the option of saving.

Search for ”zoho sheets” in your browser and then hit the “online Excel viewer option”.
In the opened window of the online Excel viewer, you will get two option

Choose a file
Import from URL

After making the selection for the Excel sheet, you will see that your Excel sheet starts uploading.
When the uploading gets over, you will get to see an option of View.
Tap to this View option, you can easily view your selected Excel worksheet on your screen.

8. WPS Office

WPS Office is such a useful Office suite designed to run on various OS Platforms like macOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS. This software program is made up of mainly three primary components: WPS Spreadsheet, WPS Presentation, and WPS Writer. Android users can get this application from Google Play store and easily access their XLS/XLSX file without an Excel application, on your Android phones.

Personally, I also use this WPS Office on my phone. I found this tool works very smoothly for opening and editing any of my XLS or XLXS files.

To download WPS Office for PC,Click Here.

9. Thinkfree Office

Thinkfree Office is a proprietary office suite that helps you to create, modify and view all your Office documents (.doc, .xls, and .ppt) anytime and anywhere. This app offers all its users with 1 GB of online storage space to save their documents.

Thinkfree Office product contains one category of Thinkfree Online. Using this feature user can create, edit, and handle their documents using any web-connected browser. This also keeps the complete history of all the documents in which you have made changes.

It is the best option to quickly view Excel spreadsheets online. It supports all versions of Excel spreadsheets and various other document formats.

The tool gives a free trial offer only for 2 months after that you have to purchase it.

To use this Thinkfree Office tool, Click Here.

10. DocsPal

It is another very useful XLS viewer tool for free. But keep this in mind that it is only a viewing tool, not an editor. If you urgently need to view your Excel file without any Excel application any then it’s the best option to use.

Since this tool runs without any installation so it works superbly with all your browser and OS.

To use this DocsPal tool, click here.

Conclusion:

Among all the listed options for opening Excel file, some of them are online whereas some are offline. Usually, the online options for Excel file opening need a proper registered account. Then only they will allow you to edit or work with your Excel spreadsheet.

Whereas some Excel file opener doesn’t need anything. Only you have to download the application and you can easily be able to perform any operation in your Excel file.

So, now it’s up to you, which option do you want to try for opening xls/xlsx file without Excel.

Good luck….

Margret

Margret Arthur is an entrepreneur & content marketing expert. She writes tech blogs and expertise on MS Office, Excel, and other tech subjects. Her distinctive art of presenting tech information in easy to understand language is very impressive. When not writing, she loves unplanned travels.