View Excel files in the terminal

1. Open an XLSX workbook

Install TTE, then run this in an interactive terminal:

tte "quarterly report.xlsx"

Quote paths containing spaces. You can also provide a full path:

tte "/path/to/quarterly report.xlsx"

Or run tte . to browse the current directory, then open the workbook from the file explorer. XLSX files open directly in Spreadsheet view, with the workbook's saved active sheet selected first. No Excel or LibreOffice installation is required.

Over SSH, install TTE on the remote machine and open a workbook stored there. This is an interactive viewer; it does not print a workbook to standard output for shell pipelines.

2. Switch sheets and copy cell values

The grid uses Excel column letters and row numbers. The status bar identifies the current worksheet and selected cell, so you can refer to an address such as B12.

Sheet navigation wraps at either end. Hidden sheets are accessible and marked (hidden). TTE remembers the selected sheet while the workbook tab is open.

Copying uses the full displayed cell value, even if a narrow column clips it on screen. On macOS, use Control+C inside TTE; Command shortcuts belong to the terminal app. For remote clipboard setup, see copying over SSH and tmux.

3. Read saved values, dates, and formulas

TTE displays text, numbers, booleans, cell errors, and supported number and date formats. It reads the saved results of formulas. It does not calculate them, so a formula without a cached result can appear blank, and an old cached result can be out of date.

For example, if B4 contains a formula whose saved result is 125, the preview shows that saved value. Recalculate and save the workbook in a spreadsheet application when you need refreshed results, then reopen it in TTE.

Blank rows and columns between values retain their coordinates. Trailing formatting-only rows and cells are excluded from the preview's used grid. A merged range shows its stored value at the top-left cell; merged layout, charts, images, and workbook styling are not reproduced.

XLSX viewer or CSV table view?

If you have a workbook with several sheets, open the XLSX file directly to keep sheet names and cell addresses. There is no need to export each sheet to CSV first.

For data that is already CSV or TSV, open the text file and press Ctrl+K to read it as an aligned table:

tte data.csv

Press Ctrl+K again to edit its source text. CSV and TSV remain text files; XLSX is a workbook format and its spreadsheet preview is read-only. TTE does not convert between these formats. The terminal editing guide also covers Markdown previews.

Supported formats and workbook limits

This feature supports .xlsx files. It does not support editing workbooks, password-protected XLSX, legacy .xls, or .xlsb. Save an unencrypted XLSX copy in a spreadsheet application if you need to view a different format.

Parsing runs locally in an isolated worker with a 30-second timeout. A preview is limited to:

• 128 MiB for the input file and 128 MiB for the uncompressed archive.
• 256 worksheets and 100,000 rows per sheet.
• 1,000,000 displayed grid cells across all sheets, counting blank gaps between values.
• 8 MiB of cell text and 12 MiB of decoded preview data.

A large workbook with widely separated values can reach the cell limit even if few cells contain text. Malformed or oversized files show an error instead of a partial preview.

Common questions