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Create, parse, and control Excel files on macOS. Professional formatting with openpyxl, complex xlsm parsing with stdlib zipfile+xml for investment bank financial models, and Excel window control via AppleScript. Use when creating formatted Excel reports, parsing financial models that openpyxl cannot handle, or automating Excel on macOS.
npx skill4agent add daymade/claude-code-skills excel-automation# Create a formatted Excel report
uv run --with openpyxl scripts/create_formatted_excel.py output.xlsx
# Parse a complex xlsm that openpyxl can't handle
uv run scripts/parse_complex_excel.py model.xlsm # List sheets
uv run scripts/parse_complex_excel.py model.xlsm "DCF" # Extract a sheet
uv run scripts/parse_complex_excel.py model.xlsm --fix # Fix corrupted names
# Control Excel via AppleScript (with timeout to prevent hangs)
timeout 5 osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'| Capability | Tool | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Create formatted Excel | | Reports, mockups, dashboards |
| Parse complex xlsm/xlsx | | Financial models, VBA workbooks, >1MB files |
| Control Excel window | AppleScript ( | Zoom, scroll, select cells programmatically |
Is the file simple (data export, no VBA, <1MB)?
├─ YES → openpyxl or pandas
└─ NO
├─ Is it .xlsm or from investment bank / >1MB?
│ └─ YES → zipfile + xml.etree.ElementTree (stdlib)
└─ Is it truly .xls (BIFF format)?
└─ YES → xlrd.xlsmfile <path>.xls| Color | RGB Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | | User input / assumption |
| Black | | Calculated value |
| Green | | Cross-sheet reference |
| White on dark blue | | Section headers |
| Dark blue text | | Title |
from openpyxl.styles import Font, PatternFill, Border, Side, Alignment
# Fonts
BLUE_FONT = Font(color="0000FF", size=10, name="Calibri")
BLACK_FONT_BOLD = Font(color="000000", size=10, name="Calibri", bold=True)
GREEN_FONT = Font(color="008000", size=10, name="Calibri")
HEADER_FONT = Font(color="FFFFFF", size=12, name="Calibri", bold=True)
# Fills
DARK_BLUE_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="4472C4")
LIGHT_BLUE_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="D9E1F2")
INPUT_GREEN_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="E2EFDA")
LIGHT_GRAY_FILL = PatternFill("solid", fgColor="F2F2F2")
# Borders
THIN_BORDER = Border(bottom=Side(style="thin", color="B2B2B2"))
BOTTOM_DOUBLE = Border(bottom=Side(style="double", color="000000"))| Format | Code | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | | $1,234 |
| Currency with decimals | | $1,234.56 |
| Percentage | | 12.3% |
| Percentage (2 decimal) | | 12.34% |
| Number with commas | | 1,234 |
| Multiplier | | 1.5x |
from openpyxl.formatting.rule import ColorScaleRule
rule = ColorScaleRule(
start_type="min", start_color="F8696B", # Red (low)
mid_type="percentile", mid_value=50, mid_color="FFEB84", # Yellow (mid)
end_type="max", end_color="63BE7B" # Green (high)
)
ws.conditional_formatting.add(f"B2:F6", rule)uv run --with openpyxl scripts/create_formatted_excel.pyscripts/create_formatted_excel.pyfile.xlsx (ZIP archive)
├── [Content_Types].xml
├── xl/
│ ├── workbook.xml ← Sheet names + order
│ ├── sharedStrings.xml ← All text values (lookup table)
│ ├── worksheets/
│ │ ├── sheet1.xml ← Cell data for sheet 1
│ │ ├── sheet2.xml ← Cell data for sheet 2
│ │ └── ...
│ └── _rels/
│ └── workbook.xml.rels ← Maps rId → sheetN.xml
└── _rels/.relsworkbook.xml_rels/workbook.xml.relsimport zipfile
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
MAIN_NS = 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main'
REL_NS = 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships'
RELS_NS = 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships'
def get_sheet_path(zf, sheet_name):
"""Resolve sheet name to physical XML file path inside ZIP."""
# Step 1: workbook.xml → find rId for the sheet name
wb_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read('xl/workbook.xml'))
sheets = wb_xml.findall(f'.//{{{MAIN_NS}}}sheet')
rid = None
for s in sheets:
if s.get('name') == sheet_name:
rid = s.get(f'{{{REL_NS}}}id')
break
if not rid:
raise ValueError(f"Sheet '{sheet_name}' not found")
# Step 2: workbook.xml.rels → map rId to file path
rels_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read('xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels'))
for rel in rels_xml.findall(f'{{{RELS_NS}}}Relationship'):
if rel.get('Id') == rid:
return 'xl/' + rel.get('Target')
raise ValueError(f"No file mapping for {rid}")def extract_cells(zf, sheet_path):
"""Extract all cell values from a sheet XML."""
# Build shared strings lookup
shared = []
try:
ss_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read('xl/sharedStrings.xml'))
for si in ss_xml.findall(f'{{{MAIN_NS}}}si'):
texts = si.itertext()
shared.append(''.join(texts))
except KeyError:
pass # No shared strings
# Parse sheet cells
sheet_xml = ET.fromstring(zf.read(sheet_path))
rows = sheet_xml.findall(f'.//{{{MAIN_NS}}}row')
data = {}
for row in rows:
for cell in row.findall(f'{{{MAIN_NS}}}c'):
ref = cell.get('r') # e.g., "A1"
cell_type = cell.get('t') # "s" = shared string, None = number
val_el = cell.find(f'{{{MAIN_NS}}}v')
if val_el is not None and val_el.text:
if cell_type == 's':
data[ref] = shared[int(val_el.text)]
else:
try:
data[ref] = float(val_el.text)
except ValueError:
data[ref] = val_el.text
return data<definedName>def fix_defined_names(zf_in_path, zf_out_path):
"""Remove corrupted DefinedNames and repackage."""
import shutil, tempfile
with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
tmp = Path(tmp)
with zipfile.ZipFile(zf_in_path, 'r') as zf:
zf.extractall(tmp)
wb_xml_path = tmp / 'xl' / 'workbook.xml'
tree = ET.parse(wb_xml_path)
root = tree.getroot()
ns = {'main': MAIN_NS}
defined_names = root.find('.//main:definedNames', ns)
if defined_names is not None:
for name in list(defined_names):
if name.text and "Formula removed" in name.text:
defined_names.remove(name)
tree.write(wb_xml_path, encoding='utf-8', xml_declaration=True)
with zipfile.ZipFile(zf_out_path, 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zf:
for fp in tmp.rglob('*'):
if fp.is_file():
zf.write(fp, fp.relative_to(tmp))scripts/parse_complex_excel.py# Activate Excel (bring to front)
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'
# Open a file
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to open POSIX file "/path/to/file.xlsx"'
# Set zoom level (percentage)
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
set zoom of active window to 120
end tell'
# Scroll to specific row
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
set scroll row of active window to 45
end tell'
# Scroll to specific column
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
set scroll column of active window to 3
end tell'
# Select a cell range
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
select range "A1" of active sheet
end tell'
# Select a specific sheet by name
osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"
activate object sheet "DCF" of active workbook
end tell'sleep 1osascripttimeout# Safe pattern: 5-second timeout
timeout 5 osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'
# Check exit code: 124 = timed out
if [ $? -eq 124 ]; then
echo "Excel not responding — is it running?"
fi| Mistake | Correction |
|---|---|
| openpyxl fails on complex xlsm → try monkey-patching | Switch to |
Count Chinese characters with | Use |
| Trust file extension | Run |
openpyxl | Use |
uv run --with openpyxlsoffice --headlessreferences/formatting-reference.md