How to clean an Excel file
Excel files collect problems over years of copy, paste and manual edits. Omixa cleans the data in your spreadsheet, shows what changed, and is upfront about what a cleaned workbook keeps and what it does not.
Clean a file freeCSV, XLSX or XLS · no account needed
What Omixa cleans in a workbook
Omixa reads the first sheet of an .xlsx or .xls file, finds issues such as stray spaces, duplicate rows, inconsistent dates, mixed capitalisation, numbers stored as text and placeholder values, and applies the fixes you choose. Files up to 10 MB are free to clean, and 25 MB with Pro.
What stays and what does not
Omixa rebuilds the cleaned sheet rather than editing the workbook in place, so it keeps what it can map safely and says plainly what it drops.
Kept: cleaned cell values, other sheets and their order, workbook properties, column widths, fonts, hidden columns and a frozen header row.
Not kept: formulas (you get their values), merged cells, hyperlinks, comments, conditional formatting, data validation, Excel tables, row heights, fills and number formats. Cleaning can remove rows and rename columns, so features tied to specific cells would end up pointing at the wrong place.
Macro-enabled workbooks (.xlsm) are rejected at upload, and .xls files are returned as .xlsx.
Why that matters
If your workbook relies on formulas or formatting, clean a copy of the data and keep your original workbook as the working file. If you need clean values for analysis, this is usually what you want.
Steps
- Upload the .xlsx or .xls file.
- Review the findings and the quality score.
- Choose rules and resolve any flagged values.
- Download the cleaned .xlsx and compare it with the preview.
Common questions
Does Omixa keep my Excel formatting?
Partly. It keeps values, other sheets, column widths, fonts, hidden columns and a frozen header row. Formulas, merged cells, hyperlinks, comments, conditional formatting, data validation, tables, row heights, fills and number formats are not carried over.
Can I clean .xls files?
Yes. Older .xls files are accepted and returned as .xlsx.
Can I clean several Excel files at once?
Yes, with Omixa Pro. Batch processing cleans up to 20 files per batch, and each file is cleaned and reported on separately.
Related guides
- Clean CSV filesClean a messy CSV file: stray spaces, duplicate rows, inconsistent dates and placeholders. Review the changes and download a cleaned copy. Free, no account.
- Remove duplicate rowsFind and remove exact duplicate rows in CSV and Excel files, and review near-duplicates safely. The first occurrence is kept and every removal is logged.
- Data quality assessmentGet a data-quality score and report for a spreadsheet: what was found, what was fixed, and what still needs review. Practical, explainable, no guesswork.