2. Glossary
  3. Excel Glossary
  4. Workbook

Workbook

Workbook

An Excel workbook is a file that contains one or more worksheets and can be saved in one of several formats. Formats are differentiated by the features they support, the number of worksheets they are able to contain, filesize, and the degree to which they are compatible with alternatives to Excel. If an alternative to Excel were able to open & edit a spreadsheet that originated from Excel, it may not be able to support all the features that were used in its creation. For example, although Google Sheets can open & edit macro-enabled workbooks, Excel macros do not work in it.

The table below provides guidance on when each of the common workbook formats should be used, summarizes their capabilities, and indicates which alternatives to Excel can open & edit files saved in those formats.

File formatSupports macrosSupported byCan be opened byCan be edited with
Excel workbook (xlsx)
  • The default and best choice in most situations.
  • Supports all features of Excel with the exception of macros.
  • Each worksheet can contain up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.
  • The number of worksheets per workbook is limited by memory only.
No
  • Excel for Microsoft 365
  • Excel for Office 2021
Excel macro-enabled workbook (xlsm)
  • The best choice for Excel workbooks that contain macros.
  • Supports all features of Excel, including macros.
  • Each worksheet can contain up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.
  • The number of worksheets per workbook is limited by memory only.
Yes
  • Excel for Microsoft 365
  • Excel for Office 2021
Excel binary workbook (xlsb)
  • The best choice for large Excel workbooks.
  • Supports all features of Excel, including macros.
  • Each worksheet can contain up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.
  • The number of worksheets per workbook is limited by memory only.
  • Minimises the size of Excel workbooks on disk.
Yes
  • Excel for Microsoft 365
  • Excel for Office 2021
Excel 97-2003 workbook (xls)
  • This is a legacy format that should be avoided.
  • Does not support all features offered by recent versions of Excel.
  • Each worksheet can contain up to 65,536 rows and 256 columns.
  • The number of worksheets per workbook is limited by memory only.
Yes
  • Excel for Microsoft 365
  • Excel for Office 2021
CSV UTF-8 (csv)
  • Often used when interchanging data with IT systems.
  • Stores data only. Because of this, worksheets cannot be formatted.
  • Data is stored in plain text, with values seperated by commas.
  • The number of worksheets per workbook is limited to one.
  • Each worksheet can contain up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.
No
  • Excel for Microsoft 365
  • Excel for Office 2021
  • Google Sheets
  • LibreOffice
  • Google Sheets
  • LibreOffice
    • Tab-delimited text (txt)
    • Often used when interchanging data with IT systems.
    • Stores data only. Because of this, worksheets cannot be formatted.
    • Data is stored in plain text, with values seperated by tabs.
    • The number of worksheets per workbook is limited to one.
    • Each worksheet can contain up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.
    		No
    • Excel for Microsoft 365
    • Excel for Office 2021
  • Google Sheets
  • LibreOffice
  • Google Sheets
  • LibreOffice
    • OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ods)
    • Useful when a workbook must be portable to an Excel alternative.
    • Based on the OpenDocument standard.
    • ODS files should behave the same on all software that supports them.
    • Supports many but not all features of Excel.
    • Each worksheet can contain up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.
    • The number of worksheets per workbook is limited by memory only.
    		Yes
    • Excel for Microsoft 365
    • Excel for Office 2021
  • Google Sheets
  • LibreOffice
  • Google Sheets
  • LibreOffice