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XLSX to XML with your own root and row elements

Upload the XLSX file, choose the sheet, set the root and row element names, then convert. Each spreadsheet row becomes one XML record and each header becomes a child element.

XLSX Encrypted, deleted after conversion

XLS, XLSX, XLSM, XLSB, ODS, CSV, TSV, Numbers, JSON, XML

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Demo converts up to 100 rows, once.

Sheet

Delimiter

Encoding

JSON shape

Minify JSON

SQL dialect

Table name

Wrap in a transaction

Dates

Row element

Orientation

Workbook password (if protected)

Trim spaces in every cell Remove duplicate rows Drop empty columns Stack all sheets into one table

XML is still the format many ERP imports, government portals and legacy integrations expect, while the data usually lives in an Excel workbook. XlsConverter turns any XLSX sheet into clean, well formed XML where the column headers become element names and every row becomes a record.

You control the structure instead of accepting a generic dump. If you need to go the other way, use XML to Excel, and for a lighter data feed consider XLSX to JSON.

How to convert XLSX to XML in three steps

1Upload your XLSX workbook or drop it into the converter.
2Pick the sheet and set the root element, row element and header handling.
3Convert and download the XML file, encoded as UTF-8.

Why spreadsheet headers break XML element names

XML element names cannot start with a digit, cannot contain spaces and cannot use most punctuation. A header like "2026 Revenue ($)" is perfectly normal in Excel and completely invalid as a tag. XlsConverter sanitizes each header into a legal name (for example _2026_Revenue) and keeps the result stable across runs, so a downstream XSD keeps matching.

Special characters inside cell values are a second trap. Ampersands, angle brackets and quotes must be escaped, and control characters pasted from other systems are not allowed in XML 1.0 at all. The converter escapes the first group and strips the second, which is the most common reason a hand built export fails validation.

Empty cells deserve a decision. Some importers want an empty element, others want the element omitted. If your target is less strict, the Excel to XML converter for older XLS files behaves the same way, and if the system really expects flat text, XML to CSV is often the simpler round trip.

Options for XLSX to XML

Sheet picker: Choose which worksheet becomes the XML document when the workbook has several tabs.
Root and row element names: Name the outer element and the repeating record element, for example orders and order.
Header row: Use the first row as element names or fall back to generic column names when the sheet has no headers.
Date format: Write dates as ISO 8601 so the receiving system parses them without guessing.

Run it automatically

When the same workbook template arrives every week, a pipeline converts it to XML the moment it lands in a dedicated email inbox, an S3 bucket or a Google Drive folder, then delivers the file to SFTP or a webhook. Element names and sheet choice are saved once in a mapping template. See automated spreadsheet pipelines for the setup.

XLSX to XML questions

Can Excel save a sheet as XML by itself?

Excel can export XML only through an XML map defined in the Developer tab, which most users never set up. XlsConverter builds the structure from your headers without a map.

Will each row become its own XML element?

Yes. Every data row becomes one row element under the root, and each column becomes a child element named after its header.

What happens to formulas when converting XLSX to XML?

XML stores data, not formulas, so the converter writes the last calculated value of each cell.

Can I convert a multi sheet workbook to XML?

You choose one sheet per output file. For several sheets, run a batch or a pipeline that writes one XML file per tab.

Can I try XLSX to XML before paying?

There is a one-time demo that converts up to 100 rows so you can check the structure. Full files need a paid plan, starting at 24 USD per month billed yearly.

Related converters

Excel to XML XML to Excel XLSX to JSON XML to CSV CSV to XML

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