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How can I view the XML form of an Excel *.xlsx file?

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XLSX files are just ZIP files, so unzip them using your favourite ZIP tool.

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What about XLS files?
XLS files are not XML-based, so it's not possible to view the XML form of them, because no such form exists. They are a proprietary binary format.
For all who may be interested: here is a description of in Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Binary File Format (.xls, BIFF8, BIFF5).
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The following procedure worked for me:

  1. Change the extension of the file from .xlsx to .zip
  2. Unzip with winzip
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You can do this easily using the tar command:

tar -xf pathtofile\excel_file.xlsx

This works on Windows 10 and Linux

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If you are on windows, 7-ziip does a very good job of this from explorer with no need to get open up a git-bash terminal or windows console. If it's installed, right click the xlsx file and select from the 7-zip options. Just, FYI for any readers who come across your solution.

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