How to Convert Rich Text Format (RTF) to Excel

Rich Text Format (RTF) files store formatted text with font, color, and layout information using a proprietary encoding. Excel cannot open RTF files directly, but several straightforward methods convert RTF content to Excel-compatible data.

Method 1: Open RTF in Word, Then Copy to Excel

Open the RTF file in Microsoft Word (or LibreOffice Writer). If the content is in a table, select the entire table (Ctrl+A to select all, or click the table selector). Copy it (Ctrl+C). Open Excel and paste (Ctrl+V). Word tables paste directly into Excel with rows and columns preserved.

Method 2: Convert RTF to CSV via Text Extraction

If the RTF file contains tabular data, convert it to plain text first. Open in Word → Save As → Plain Text (.txt). Open the .txt file in Excel using Data → Get Data → From Text/CSV. Choose Tab or comma as delimiter depending on how the data is separated.

Method 3: Python with python-docx or striprtf

from striprtf.striprtf import rtf_to_text
import pandas as pd

with open('document.rtf') as f:
    rtf_content = f.read()

plain_text = rtf_to_text(rtf_content)
lines = [line.split('	') for line in plain_text.splitlines() if line.strip()]
df = pd.DataFrame(lines)
df.to_excel('output.xlsx', index=False)

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Excel open RTF files directly?

No — Excel does not natively support RTF as an import format. You need an intermediate step: opening in Word and copying to Excel, converting to plain text or CSV first, or using a scripting library to extract the text content.