The goal of XML is to be a universal language, allowing data to move freely from one application to another. In this case, that means that saving an Excel worksheet as an XML document would allow any other spreadsheet program to read the XML file, separate out the cell names and data, and use the annotations to recreate the worksheet. By the same token, you could take a worksheet saved as an XML file and, regardless of the program in which the file was created, import it into Excel.
Save a Workbook as an XML Spreadsheet
Click the Microsoft Office button.
Click Save As.
Click the Save As Type down arrow.
Click XML Spreadsheet 2003.
Type the file name you want.
Click Save.
Import Spreadsheet XML
Click the Microsoft Office button.
Click Open.
Navigate to the folder containing the XML document you want.
Double-click the XML document.
Tip
If you don’t see any XML documents in the Open dialog box, click the file type button and click All Microsoft Excel Files.