While many schools and organization choose to use Google Sheets for creating and editing spreadsheets, you are still likely to encounter Microsoft Excel, meaning that you might need a way to turn a Google spreadsheet into an Excel file. Fortunately there is a way in Google Sheets to convert to the Excel file format.
Google Sheets is a free spreadsheet application that you can use when you sign into your Google Account. Sheets that you create online are saved to your Google Drive, and you can access them through the Web browser on your phone or computer, or through a dedicated app.
But occasionally you will need to work on a Google Sheet with the Microsoft Excel program, which can leave you wondering whether or not it is possible to download a Google Sheet to your computer. Fortunately this functionality is built into Google Sheets, so you can follow our guide below to export a Google Sheet to the .xlsx file format.
How to Download Google Sheets to Excel
- Open your Google Sheets file.
- Click File.
- Choose Download.
- Select Microsoft Excel.
Our article continues below with more information on downloading a Google Sheets file to Excel, including pictures of these steps.
Saving a Google Sheet in an Excel Format (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article will download a copy of your Google Sheet to your computer as a file with the .xslx file type. You will be able to open this file in Microsoft Excel and edit it with that program. Note, however, that changes made to this file will not be applied to the version that is saved in your Google Drive. After the Google Sheet is exported to the Excel file type, the file in Google Sheets and the downloaded file are two separate things.
Step 1: Open your Web browser and go to drive.google.com. Enter the username and password for your Google account if you are not already signed in.
Step 2: Double-click the Google Sheet that you wish to download.
Step 3: Click File at the top of the window, then Download As, then select the Microsoft Excel option.
Step 4: You can then click the downloaded file to have it open in Microsoft Excel.
Have you been curious about using pivot tables in Microsoft Excel, but weren’t quite sure how? Learn about pivot tables in Excel 2013 to see the different functionality that they use to make it easier to sort and analyze your data.
More Information on How to Convert Google Sheets File to Microsoft Excel
- When you convert Google Sheets files to Excel files you are creating a copy of the Google Sheets file in the Microsoft Excel .xlsx file format. You can still use Google Sheets to edit the original file, but those changes will not be reflected after you have already downloaded the Excel format copy.
- Sheets and Docs have many of the same formatting options that you will find in their Microsoft counterparts. This guide discusses how to use strikethrough in Docs.
- You can convert Google Sheets spreadsheets to other file types as well. These include the OpenDocument format, a PDF document, a Web page, a comma separated CSV file or a tab separated CSV file.
- While this article focuses specifically on how to turn a Google Sheets file into a Microsoft Excel file, you can go the other way, too. If you open Google Drive on your computer you can click the New button, choose the File upload option, then upload your Excel file. Google Drive will then convert it to a format that is compatible with Google Sheets.
Additional Sources
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.
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