Computer Related > Excel Files from Websites Miscellaneous
Thread Author: zippy Replies: 12
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 17:01 
 Excel Files from Websites - zippy
I use a lot of websites to download data and it is often presented as an Excel file (not CSV) with a .xls extension.

I would really like the files to have a .xlsx extension. I know I can save the files using save as, but with large files it takes some time.

Is the extension controlled by the website presenting the data or by some obscure setting on my computer that I might be able to change?

Thanks
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 19:54 
 Excel Files from Websites - smokie
What takes time? Downloading a million bytes tales about the same time whatever file type it is, and is dependent on all kinds of stuff which doesn't include the filetype.

If it's on the website as an xls that's what you'll get, AFAIK.

You could download a bulk renaming utility if there are lots to change. I use this one, very lightweight and simple. www.den4b.com/products/renamer
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 20:01 
 Excel Files from Websites - Zero
It is downloaded in the form it was saved as, usually the lowest version readable by the most recipients,

I have absolutely no idea why you wish to change it, its readable by anything you are using to manipulate the data.
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 21:21 
 Excel Files from Websites - zippy
>> I have absolutely no idea why you wish to change it, its readable by anything
>> you are using to manipulate the data.
>>

The .xlsx format is for Excel as found in Office 365 and has some whizzy new formulas that are not backward compatible.

Trying to be efficient, I would like the files in that format rather than having to open them all and saving them in the correct format.
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 21:23 
 Excel Files from Websites - zippy
>> What takes time? Downloading a million bytes tales about the same time whatever file type
>> it is, and is dependent on all kinds of stuff which doesn't include the filetype.
>>

I know what you mean but the minutes add up.



>> If it's on the website as an xls that's what you'll get, AFAIK.
>>
>> You could download a bulk renaming utility if there are lots to change. I use
>> this one, very lightweight and simple. www.den4b.com/products/renamer
>>
>>

Will that work and actually change the internal format of the file so modern (Office 365) features will work?
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 23:03 
 Excel Files from Websites - Zero

>> Will that work and actually change the internal format of the file so modern (Office
>> 365) features will work?

No.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 13 Sep 22 at 23:04
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 23:32 
 Excel Files from Websites - smokie
Haha I didn't think to test it, of course it doesn't work!! Sorry!!
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New Tue 13 Sep 22 23:42 
 Excel Files from Websites - zippy
Thanks for all your replies.

Looks like I'm stuck with it until our data website providers catch up with modern times.
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New Wed 14 Sep 22 06:58 
 Excel Files from Websites - Falkirk Bairn
>>Looks like I'm stuck with it until our data website providers catch up with modern times.

Many users, including Government departments, NHS, HMRC, Corporate bodies are still using software that dates back decades.
Major banks are still running mainframe programmes written in Cobol in the 1960s.

With regard to Excel versions over say 12 years old are limited to 65,536 rows but companies still run the old version - bought & paid for and no licence fee as against annual blackmail of renting today.

Errors can arise using old Excel - this was highlighted during Covid when the data breached the 65K rows and new data was not recorded.

The data provider tries to avoid having many versions of the same data and have the ongoing issue with maintenance & support.
They normally supply a version that can be read by many Excel versions and other Spreadsheet suppliers - Lowest Common Denominator that does the job.
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New Wed 14 Sep 22 09:23 
 Excel Files from Websites - smokie
There is a program in Office called excelenv.exe which it seems you can run within the command processor. it might look a bit scary to some but I reckon it's pretty simple. This example seems to run for me.

"C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office 15rootOffice15excelcnv.exe" -oice "e:xls.xls" e:xls.xlsx"

This converts the file s.xls to s.xlsx fairly quickly without (visually) opening Excel. The output file has more than 65536 lines but whether it has other newer Office features I have no idea.

You'd need to find the path to the program on your machine as it varies with each Office release.

I can't immediately think of how to make it do a load of files at once without lines and lines of code but maybe someone else can.

Have a go at copying this code into a file in Notepad, correct the path to excelcnv and save it as Zipconvert, then change the extension on the saved Zipconvert.txt file to .bat;

echo off

"C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office 15rootOffice15excelcnv.exe" -oice "e:xl%1.xls" e:xl%1.xlsx"

(I think I'd create a folder called excelconvert to do the conversion in rather than risk overwriting stuff - whatever, you'll need to change the paths in the command above to match your input and output folders.)

Then you can just copy your source file to your temp folder, then in the command processor go to the folder where you saved the .bat file and run Zipconvert (e.g. Zipconvert myspreadsheet) and it will create an xlsx file with the same name in the same folder.

Sound a bit complicated but it really isn't.

PS I did see some apparently adverse Excel errors which indicated exploits and safe mode - as I'm only using their own command I think these are spurious and can be ignored.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 14 Sep 22 at 10:17
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New Wed 14 Sep 22 18:28 
 Excel Files from Websites - zippy
Thanks Smokie!
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New Wed 14 Sep 22 18:57 
 Excel Files from Websites - smokie
S'OK. Happy to help further either here or on email if required.
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New Wed 14 Sep 22 19:38 
 Excel Files from Websites - Kevin
www.theregister.com/2022/09/13/microsoft_excel_automate_tasks_windows_mac/?td=rt-3a
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