Often, some users have to deal with XML files, which are data based on a description with tags or program settings. Open them for editing with the usual double-click does not work. This is due to the fact that for association with the extension the necessary application is not installed, which is used by default. But if you want to get a readable file in the form of a table with the ability to edit, you can open the XML file in Excel. At the same time, no converters capable of converting formats between themselves are needed. The only note: this feature is available only in Office versions 2003 and higher.
How to open XML in Excel: method one
Consider importing data based on Excel version 2016. The first and easiest way is to start the Excel program initially. When you start the application, instead of a greeting and a logo, it will display a special login window, in which on the left side of the menu there is the line “Open other books”.
After that, the point of view is used, and in a new window, XML is selected as the opened format. After that, by the usual method, we find the desired file and press the open button. In this case, Excel does not recognize the XML file as a text document containing descriptions and tags, but as a regular table. Naturally, the data can be edited at your discretion, but more on that later.
How to open XML format in Excel: method two
Virtually no different from the first one, another proposed method. You can open the XML file in Excel from the file menu or use the quick combination Ctrl + O for this.
Again, first selects the type of format to be opened, then the desired file is found and the corresponding button is pressed.
XML Discovery: Method Three
There are several more methods for opening XML files in Excel. So, in the 2016 version of the program, you can use the menu on the top panel, where the "Data" section is selected, and then the button for receiving external data is pressed.
In the drop-down menu you just need to select the "From other sources" section and in the new menu use the line "From XML Import". After this follows the standard procedure for finding the desired file and then opening it.
Editing, Saving, and Exporting
Using any of these methods, the user gets the table structure. Editing is done in the same way as with standard XLS files. Sometimes, for the convenience of editing and saving data, it is advisable to use the menu for developers.
In this case, you can import not all the contents of the XML file, but only what is really necessary by inserting information into the appropriate columns and rows, specifying the XML object as the data source. But for this, you need to log in to the account in the program itself using your registration with Microsoft.
You can save the changed file immediately in the original format by selecting the appropriate type from the list. From the file menu, if the object was saved in the "native" Excel format, you can select the export function, click on change the file type and set XML as the final format.
If the user is too lazy to engage in such conversions, or in his work he uses the Office version lower than version 2003, you will have to use a special converter to open this format as a table. Such programs are now offered quite a lot. In extreme cases, if this does not work, you can easily turn to specialized online services on which the format will be changed within a couple of tens of seconds. At the end of such actions, it remains only to download the finished result in XLS format to the hard disk, and then open it in Excel. However, in most cases, such actions are not required, since in the same Office 2003 the possibility of directly opening (importing) the XML format is already provided for initially. And it seems that few people today use outdated Microsoft office products.