Do macros survive in free tools?

Word Online doesn't run macros at all. Google Sheets supports its own Apps Script which is not VBA — VBA macros don't translate. LibreOffice Calc runs VBA imperfectly. For macro-heavy spreadsheets, you may need to either run Excel on a different account or rewrite the macros for your destination tool.

What about pivot tables and charts?

Pivot tables survive in Excel Online and Google Sheets, with minor UI differences. Standard charts come through cleanly. Complex sparklines and slicers sometimes look different.

What's the safest free tool for school-finished spreadsheets?

Excel Online — it's the same engine as desktop Excel, just in a browser. The free Microsoft tier gives you 5 GB of OneDrive and unlimited Excel use, which is enough for archive purposes.

File types · Excel

.xlsx files, free of Office.

Most of your spreadsheets will open fine in free tools. Here's the exception list — and what to do about it.

Excel Online (closest to desktop Excel)

Sign in to office.com with a free Microsoft account, upload the .xlsx. Same engine as desktop Excel, same formulas, same pivot tables. Doesn't run macros — for a macro-free spreadsheet, this is the closest experience to the original.

Google Sheets

Upload to Drive, open with Sheets. Formula compatibility is good but not perfect — some Excel-only functions (LET, LAMBDA, certain array formulas) translate imperfectly. For most school spreadsheets the conversion is clean.

LibreOffice Calc

Desktop, offline, free. Opens .xlsx natively. Handles macros with the LibreOffice Basic dialect; VBA macros require a compatibility flag and usually need some hand-tuning.

What might break

VBA macros — rare in school spreadsheets, but if they're there, they may not run.
Power Query connections — break when the data source isn't available.
External data links — to SharePoint, web sources, other workbooks — break if the original source is gone.
Complex conditional formatting — usually renders, sometimes with minor visual differences.
Comments threaded with @-mentions — survive as plain comments without the @ link.

Common questions

Do macros survive in free tools?: Word Online doesn't run macros at all. Google Sheets supports its own Apps Script which is not VBA — VBA macros don't translate. LibreOffice Calc runs VBA imperfectly. For macro-heavy spreadsheets, you may need to either run Excel on a different account or rewrite the macros for your destination tool.
What about pivot tables and charts?: Pivot tables survive in Excel Online and Google Sheets, with minor UI differences. Standard charts come through cleanly. Complex sparklines and slicers sometimes look different.
What's the safest free tool for school-finished spreadsheets?: Excel Online — it's the same engine as desktop Excel, just in a browser. The free Microsoft tier gives you 5 GB of OneDrive and unlimited Excel use, which is enough for archive purposes.