Default file format

This policy setting controls the default file format for saving workbooks in Excel.

If you enable this policy setting, you can set the default file format for Excel from among the following options:

- Excel Workbook (.xlsx).This option is the default configuration in Excel 2016.
- Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (.xlsm)
- Excel Binary Workbook (.xlsb)
- Web Page (.htm; .html)
- Excel 97-2003 Workbook (.xls)
- Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (.xls)
- OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods)

Users can choose to save workbooks in a different file format than the default.

If you disable or you do not configure this policy setting, Excel saves new workbooks in the Office Open XML format with an .xlsx extension.

Save Excel files as

0. Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)
   

   Registry Hive	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Registry Path	software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
   Value Name	defaultformat
   Value Type	REG_DWORD
   Value	51

1. Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm)
   

   Registry Hive	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Registry Path	software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
   Value Name	defaultformat
   Value Type	REG_DWORD
   Value	52

2. Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb)
   

   Registry Hive	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Registry Path	software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
   Value Name	defaultformat
   Value Type	REG_DWORD
   Value	50

3. Web Page (*.htm; *.html)
   

   Registry Hive	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Registry Path	software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
   Value Name	defaultformat
   Value Type	REG_DWORD
   Value	44

4. Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls)
   

   Registry Hive	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Registry Path	software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
   Value Name	defaultformat
   Value Type	REG_DWORD
   Value	56

5. Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (*.xls)
   

   Registry Hive	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Registry Path	software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
   Value Name	defaultformat
   Value Type	REG_DWORD
   Value	39

6. OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods)
   

   Registry Hive	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Registry Path	software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
   Value Name	defaultformat
   Value Type	REG_DWORD
   Value	60