XLS MIME Type

About Excel 97–2003 workbook files

The binary Excel format, stored in an OLE2 compound file. Watch out in upload handlers: on Windows machines with Excel installed, browsers often report .csv files as application/vnd.ms-excel too, because the type comes from the Windows registry.

File signature

XLS files start with D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1 (OLE2 compound file). The extension and the type a browser reports for an upload both come from the file name, so check these bytes on the server before trusting a file.

Serve .xls with the right Content-Type

Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel

application/vnd.ms-excel xls xlt;

AddType application/vnd.ms-excel .xls .xlt

@xls path *.xls *.xlt
header @xls Content-Type "application/vnd.ms-excel"

curl -sI https://example.com/file.xls | grep -i '^content-type'
# Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel

Set the type in code

res.set('Content-Type', 'application/vnd.ms-excel');
// Or make the browser download it:
res.attachment('file.xls');

import mimetypes

mimetypes.add_type('application/vnd.ms-excel', '.xls')  # if your system doesn't know it
mimetypes.guess_type('file.xls')[0]  # 'application/vnd.ms-excel'

mime.AddExtensionType(".xls", "application/vnd.ms-excel")
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/vnd.ms-excel")

Accept .xls uploads

<input type="file" accept=".xls,.xlt,application/vnd.ms-excel">

The accept attribute only filters the file picker; users can still choose another file. Listing the extension as well as the type matters, because operating systems don’t always report the type you expect.

Related types

• .xlsx (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet): Excel workbook
• .csv (text/csv): CSV
• .doc (application/msword): Word 97–2003 document

More documents

.pdf , .docx , .ppt , .pptx , .odt , .rtf , .epub . Look up any extension or type with the MIME type lookup.

Sources

• IANA registration: application/vnd.ms-excel
• MDN: Common media types

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Frequently asked questions