XLSB: just what is an XLSB file in Excel?

Spreadsheets made with Microsoft Excel are usually saved as XLSX files. An alternative to this is XLSB format. Perhaps you’ve never heard of this one – no worries because here we explain what it is and what it is used for. You will also learn about how to convert Excel files into XLSB format and how you can work with XLSB files.

Files made in the spreadsheet program Excel can be saved in XLSB format. These files are completely normal Excel tables in which data can be stored and calculations performed.

Unlike the usual XLSX files, however, individual spreadsheets in XLSB files are saved in BIFF12 binary file format. This is what the ‘B’ in the extension means – Excel binary workbook. A binary worksheet is a file in which all data is directly saved in binary format, i.e. as a series of ones and zeros. This means that XLSB files open more quickly and take up less memory space.

So just what do you do if you want to save space and convert your document from a standard XLSX file into an XLSB file? It just takes a few simple steps. If you already have Excel installed on your computer, the process is as follows:

1. Open the XLSX file that you want to convert into XLSB format.
2. Click on ‘File’ in the top left of Microsoft Excel.
3. Select the option ‘Save As’.
4. Click on ‘Excel Workbook (.xlsx)’. This should open a drop-down menu. Now, click on ‘Excel Binary Workbook (.XLSB)’.
5. Save your new XLSB file by clicking on the ‘Save’ button. The new file will now be shown in the same save location as the original file.

For other spreadsheet programs, such as Calc or PlanMaker, the process is the same. If you don't have a spreadsheet program or you can’t open the file you need, you can use a free online tool to convert the file into XLSB format. In this case, you can convert the file directly on the website. To do this, choose XLSX as the starting file format and XLSB as the target file format. You can then upload your file to the website. Once the conversion has finished, you can download the XLSB file and save it on your hard drive.

There is a whole range of online conversion tools to do this that you can easily find using a search engine. One such example is file-converter-online.com, which can handle conversions from XLSX to XLSB as well as a number of other different conversions such as XLSX to XLS files.

You can use a lot of different programs to work with XLSB files. You don’t necessarily need a version of Excel to do this. Below, we will show you an overview of common alternative programs that support XLSB files (status: October 2021).