How to Easily Move Your Data from Excel to Google Sheets

Spreadsheets continue to be the most widely used business application in the world, with well over a billion users. To this day (2022), Microsoft Excel remains the industry standard for spreadsheets. However, due to Google Sheets' superior collaborative features, Excel is losing ground to its rival.

However, Excel is still widely used, especially in traditional industries. Therefore, even Google Sheets-only teams eventually run into Excel documents.

Excel can be a useful tool for these groups, but it is not required. Spreadsheets created in Excel can be easily imported into Google Sheets. They can keep using their preferred spreadsheet program.

Here is a detailed tutorial on how to import spreadsheets from Microsoft Excel into Google Sheets.

How to Migrate from Excel to Google Docs/Sheets: A Video Guide

Converting from Excel to Google Sheets: Compatible Formats

When saving a document in Excel, you'll always get the xlsx file Ahead of that, the most common file type was xls Both can be converted in Google Sheets. xls and uploading.xlsx files to Google Docs

Just to review quickly: a Excel spreadsheets are saved as xls files, which are binary files. But a Files saved as xlsx adhere to the Open XML standard and contain subfolders and files organized in a ZIP archive.

In addition to importing Excel files, Google Sheets can also perform file conversions. Among these are:

• xlsm
• csv
• xlt
• ods
• tsv
• tab

Transferring Data from Excel to Google Sheets

The process of converting an Excel file to Google Sheets can be accomplished in a few easy steps. Google Drive allows you to import Excel files, create new sheets to store Excel data, and even automate the conversion process.

Here's a comprehensive guide to making the transition from Excel to Google Sheets as painless as possible.

Google Drive to Excel Conversion

Google Drive makes it easy to upload an Excel file and quickly transform it into a Google spreadsheet.

To begin, open Google Drive in your web browser. A new window will open, from which you can select File Upload > New.

Then, from your gadget, pick the Excel file you wish to transfer.

After selecting Open, your Excel file will be sent to Google Drive.

Simply double-click the file to view it in Google Sheets.

In this way, you can make changes to the the.xlsx file format through the Google Sheets user interface But if you're set on changing the to import an.xlsx file into a Google spreadsheet, you must save the file with that extension.

Select File > Save as Google Sheets from the menu bar.

And, viola! Your Excel file is now a Google Sheet.

Quickly and Easily Transform Excel Documents into Google Docs

When properly configured, this final step is unnecessary, and you can instead save the Excel file directly as a Google spreadsheet. When you save a file to Google Drive, it can be automatically converted into a Google Doc, in this case Google Sheets.

How to Do It: To access Google Drive, select the Gear Shaft icon. Finally, select Preferences.

The option to convert uploads can be found under General in the Settings menu. All of your uploaded files will be converted to Google Docs's editable format automatically.

From now on, Google Sheets will be created from uploaded Excel files upon opening.

Obtain an Excel Document From a Google Spreadsheet

Google Sheets also includes a built-in converter for Microsoft Excel files. This lets you import Excel data into your Google spreadsheet for more comprehensive analysis.

Learn the steps, here To import a CSV file into a Google spreadsheet, go to File > Import.

You can import an existing Excel file or create a new one. You have the option of selecting a file from your Google Drive or uploading a new one.

Let's get a fresh file up there. Select an Excel document from your computer by using the "Upload" button.

After selecting an Excel file for upload, you'll see a drop-down box where you can select an import method.

Here's a rundown of what you can do:

• Make a new spreadsheet - transform that Excel file into a Google Docs one
• The Excel file will be imported into the current Google Sheet as a new sheet.
• Spreadsheet replacement - Switch out the existing spreadsheet for the Excel one

Choose one or more blank sheets to insert. Select Import Theme to keep Excel's default theme intact. Step 2: Select the Import data option.

The information in Excel is copied to a new sheet in the active spreadsheet.

Google Sheets to Excel Conversion

You can quickly and easily export data from Google Sheets to Excel. To do so, go to the menu bar and select the appropriate download option (File > Download > Microsoft Excel). xlsx)

The current Google spreadsheet will be downloaded to your computer in Excel format. The spreadsheet is also available for download in Excel's native file formats: csv and tsv

How Limited Is the Transition from Excel to Google Sheets?

Excel to Google Sheets conversion is usually painless. For most purposes, it's not terribly difficult to switch between the two systems, and Google Sheets makes it easy to import Excel documents.

Excel to Google Sheets conversion is not always the best option. To avoid potential problems, consider the following restrictions:

• When compared to Excel's ability to handle billions of cells per spreadsheet, Google Sheets' recent increase to 10 million cells per spreadsheet is still a far cry. Therefore, Excel files larger than 10 million cells cannot be imported into Google Sheets.
• However, Google Sheets does not support Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Excel VBA macros are incompatible with Google Docs spreadsheets. Sheets' scripting language of choice is Google App Script (GAS).
• Google Sheets will not be able to open or modify an Excel file that contains links to other workbooks. Uploaded Excel files are the only ones that can be viewed in Sheets.
• Power Query and Power Pivot, two of Excel's most advanced data modeling tools, are not available in Google Sheets.

Let's flip that around and talk about exporting Google Sheets as Excel files. The loss of Google Sheets' collaborative features is only part of the problem here. Not all Google Sheets features are available in Excel.

• ARRAYFORMULA
• CONCAT
• CONTINUE
• COUNTUNIQUE
• DIVIDE
• EQ
• FILTER
• GOOGLEFINANCE
• GT
• GTE
• IMPORTDATA
• IMPORTFEED
• IMPORTHTML
• IMPORTRANGE
• IMPORTXML
• JOIN
• QUERY
• SORT
• SPARKLINE
• SPLIT
• TO_TEXT
• UNARY_PERCENT
• UNIQUE
• UPLUS

To illustrate, if you take a Google Spreadsheet and transform it to xlsx file contains one of these functions, you'll need to rewrite the formula in Excel to keep it from becoming corrupted.

Easily Switch Between Excel and Google Sheets to Use Whichever Spreadsheet Program Best Suits Your Needs

It's easy to import Excel spreadsheets into Google Sheets. The flip side is that Sheets makes it simple to save Google Spreadsheets in Excel format.

Although there may be some incompatibilities between Excel and Sheets, most users shouldn't have any trouble making the switch. Having this option means you can use whichever spreadsheet program you like best.

Additionally, Coefficient allows you to combine data in Google Sheets from various sources (including Excel files, CSVs, and other real-time data sources) Coefficient is a free add-on for Google Sheets that simplifies data analysis.