decrypt excel files

Question

Hi I have 1000 encrypted workbooks which I would like to decrypt by providing a pwd. I could not find a decrypt method under apache poi or python's xlrd module.

Does anyone know a library which could handle this (wbc.decrypt(pwd)). I would prefer a lib i could you use from a unix box.

Thanks

Answer 1

Use the COM bindings to call the Unprotect method.

import win32com.client

excel = win32com.client.Dispatch('Excel.Application')

workbook = excel.Workbooks.open(r'c:\mybook.xls', 'password')

workbook.SaveAs('unencrypted.xls')

SaveAs can apply a new password. See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.tools.excel.workbook.saveas%28VS.80%29.aspx