My excel file is being opened as notepad on my e-mail

The file is being downloaded in a way that makes Windows associate it with Notepad instead of Excel, or the file format/extension does not match the actual Excel content.

Use these steps to get it back into Excel:

1. Save the attachment to the computer (do not open it directly from the email).
2. In File Explorer, go to the folder where it was saved.
3. Check the file name and extension:
   • If it ends with .txt or another non‑Excel extension, but you know it is an Excel workbook, rename it to end with .xlsx.
   • If it already ends with .xlsx but opens in Notepad, right‑click the file, select Open with > Excel.
4. If Excel shows a warning that the file extension does not match the format, this means the content and extension differ:
   • Only continue if the sender is trusted.
   • Open it in Excel, then immediately Save As and choose Excel Workbook (*.xlsx).
5. If the workbook appears corrupted (garbled characters, unreadable), use Excel’s repair options as described in the “Repair a corrupted workbook” article linked from the extension‑mismatch documentation.
6. If the problem occurs only with attachments from email, ask the sender to resend the file explicitly as an Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) or Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb), then save it and open it in Excel.

If Excel for the web can preview it but not edit or download correctly, open it in the desktop Excel app from the web preview, then save it locally as a proper .xlsx file.

References:

• A file is in a different format than its extension indicates in Excel
• Unable to View or Edit Office files by using Office Online or Office Web Apps