Excel files can only be opened as a word document

Question

When I try to reopen an excel file, I can only do so if the file is first converted to a word document. How can I open my excel documents without this happening?

Answer 1

Right click an Excel file, select Properties.

On the resulting dialog, click the 'Change' button, then find Excel in the resulting list.

That should reset the Excel File associations, do Excel files then open correctly in Excel?

If not, right click an Excel file and select Properties, please provide a screenshot of the resulting Properties dialog box.

Answer 2

Change the file association in Windows so .xlsx (and .xls) open with Excel instead of Word.

1. In File Explorer, locate any Excel file (for example, a .xlsx file).
2. Right-click the file and select Properties.
3. On the General tab, find Opens with.
4. Click Change….
5. Select Excel from the list of apps. If Excel is not listed, choose More apps and then find Excel.
6. Click OK, then Apply, then OK.

After this, double‑clicking Excel files will open them directly in Excel without converting them to Word documents.

If files are still opening read-only after fixing the association, check the file’s Read-only attribute in Properties and clear it, and verify they are not opening in Protected View as described in the read‑only article below.

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References:

• Why did my file open read-only?
• Office 2016 files open as read-only unexpectedly