The ability to switch between Google Sheets and Excel Spreadsheets quickly and easily is a nice tool to have in your toolbelt. Google Sheets are absolutely perfect for real-time collaboration while Excel is obviously the best free software for hardcore number crunching. In this post I will show you how to change between formats quickly using Google Drive. Although there are Mac apps that can facilitate this process, this method is foolproof and most importantly, free!

Convert an Excel Spreadsheet to a Google Sheet

Step 1 – Go to Your Google Drive

Step 2 –  Upload an Excel Spreadsheet to Your Google Drive

Select the up arrow next to “Create” then select “Files”.

Now that you have uploaded your file, you should see it in your Google Drive. The document will appear in Google Drive with the Excel “X” next to it indicating it’s format.

Step 3 – Open the Excel Spreadsheet as a Google Sheet

Right click on the document and select “Open with” → “Google Sheets”

BOOM! Now your Excel Spreadsheet is a Google Sheet.

Convert an Google Sheet to a Excel Spreadsheet

Ok what if you have a Google Sheet and you want to convert it to Excel. Here is how you do it:

Step 1 – Open the Google Sheet document with Excel

Right click on the Google Sheet and select “Download”.

Now a box (pictured below) will appear. Select the proper format then click “download”. An Excel Spreadsheet will begin downloading in your browser. Pretty sweet, I know 🙂

With this knowledge you should have no problem using both Google Sheets and Excel Spreadsheets interchangeably in their optimal use cases. Hope you found these Google Docs tips valuable.